Strong second quarter earnings for Google’s parent company Alphabet has allayed investor fears that its advertising business would crash along with the global economy.
Alphabet reported second-quarter revenue of US$69.69 billion. This is 13 per cent up on the June quarter for 2021, and came close to the Wall Street estimates of US$69.88 billion.
Overall profit was US$16 billion, at US$1.21 per share.
Shares in the company jumped by 3.5 per cent in after-hours trading.
Google’s advertising business made up 81 per cent of the revenue, bringing in US$56.29 billion.
This also fell slightly under the Wall Street forecast of US$56.67 billion, but is a much better result than the US$100 million shy the company’s ad business fell of expectations in the first quarter.
Google is expected to have maintained its global online ad market share of 29 per cent.
Despite the strong quarter, Google is still on shaky ground. Sales in Russia have been paused, and antitrust suits on five continents will lead to Google taking smaller cuts from app developers who sell through Google Play.