Google’s first quarter earnings slip despite aggressive cloud investment

Alphabet, the parent company behind search giant Google has revealed first-quarter results that show lower than expected earnings.

Up until March 31, Alphabet clocked up $68 billion in sales, which is less than the predicted $68.1 billion forecasted by analysts during a recent Yahoo Finance survey.

Per share earnings were similarly less impressive, totalling $24.62 instead of the $25.94 that was forecasted.

Commentators point to the bigger picture as Google tries to diversify its revenue streams. Google bosses hope to rely less on its near 90 percent dominance of the search marketplace, especially since the weakening of the global economy has been taking place.

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Cloud computing portfolio

Alongside benefitting financially from revenue generated by selling keyword and search-based advertising, Google is also bolstering its cloud computing portfolio.

Google’s cloud computing services are being pitched against the likes of Amazon’s AWS along with Microsoft’s Azure. Google’s is chasing the market more aggressively and has managed to raise its cloud-based revenues by over 40 percent year-on-year, shaving off losses and bringing in $5.82 billion. 

In the meantime, Google’s board also approved a share buyback, which aims to repurchase some $70 billion in shares. Ruth Porat, Google CFO told analysts that it had made aggressive moves over the last quarter to boost its data centers and hire more workers. 

Indeed, the company added nearly 24,000 to its workforce at the close of the first quarter compared to the year before.

Spending has also been increased on sales and marketing, although like many other companies, the search giant has also lost about 1% of its revenue having pulled out of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.

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