Google boosted by YouTube and mobile search

Sundar Pichai

Google parent company Alphabet reported strong third quarter results, with mobile search and video powering its core ad business.

Announcing the results last week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company’s advertising business is “thriving in a mobile world” and said that users are “super-attentive and engaged” in mobile services like Google search, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Play.

“It’s just like people used to be glued to their TV screen during prime time. Our services are prime time for the mobile world,” said Pichai.

He said that YouTube now has more than 1 billion monthly users, who are watching “hundreds of millions of hours every single day”, making it “the platform of choice for major brands”.

YouTube campaigns increase searches for brands, with YouTube generating almost twice as many searches per impression than TV, according to Pichai.

He also cited research claiming that YouTube helps half of US adults aged 18-54 make a decision about buying something at least once per month.

“YouTube revenue continues to grow at a very significant rate, driven primarily by video advertising across TrueView, with a growing contribution from buying on DoubleClick Bid Manager,” said Alphabet’s chief financial officer Ruth Porat.

Speaking on the company’s earnings Porat said that Google remained committed to “abundant connectivity on networks that are always fast and always open”, despite its decision last week to halt the expansion of its Google Fiber project.

“We’re pausing for now our work in eight cities where we’ve been in exploratory discussions,” said Porat, adding that Google would remain “very committed to growth” in the 12 US cities where Google Fiber is deployed, in construction, or in development.

Overall for the quarter Alphabet reported a 20% year-on-year increase in revenues at US$22.45 billion. GAAP net income was US$5.06 billion compared to US$3.98 billion in the same quarter a year earlier.