Google, afflicted by information and personal privacy problems, still rakes it in

Google’s list of issues is no joke: Its own employees have actually openly risen versus the business in demonstration over sexual attack claims and its deal with the armed force. CEO Sundar Pichai was dragged in front of Congress in December to address for personal privacy and censorship scandals. And simply recently, the search huge irate Apple for breaching the regards to its App Store while dispersing a marketing research app.

One thing is still golden for Google, though: It’s making a lots of cash.

In the last 3 months of the year, Google’s moms and dad, Alphabet, tallied $3927 billion in sales, beating expert price quotes of $3894 billion, the business statedMonday Earnings per share were $1277 Analysts typically had actually anticipated $1082 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

“More than 20 years in, there is still tremendous opportunity for Google to help people save time, learn new things, grow their businesses and build stronger communities,” Pichai stated throughout a teleconference with experts onMonday

Traffic acquisition expenses, or the costs the business pays to partners to ensure its search results page are seen, increased to $7.4 billion from $6.4 billion over the very same duration in 2015. That concerned 23 percent of Google’s overall marketing sales. The business likewise stated it’s investing more cash on its “other bets,” that include jobs like Waymo’s self-driving automobiles and Verily’s medical innovation. The operating loss for those efforts was $1.3 billion in the 4th quarter, up from $784 million the year prior to.

Shares fell about 3 percent in after-hours trading on those greater expenditures.

Facing debates

The just-ended quarter topped off probably the hardest year of Google’s presence. In November, Google employees made history when more than 20,000 workers and specialists from cities worldwide left of their workplaces to oppose the business’s handling of sexual attack allegations versus magnates. The walkout marked the peak in a year of demonstrations by Google workers, who spoke up versus the business’s deal with the Pentagon and Google’s prepares for a search task called Dragonfly inChina

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Google has also been the target of intense scrutiny in Washington, DC. Several prominent Republicans, including President Trump, have accused Google of an anticonservative bias. In August, Trump tweeted that Google’s search results are “rigged,” saying the company is “suppressing voices of Conservatives.” In December, when Pichai faced the then-GOP controlled House of Representatives, he fielded questions from angry Republican lawmakers about what they considered liberal leanings by  Google’s workforce.

And last week, the search giant felt the wrath of Apple. Google misused an App Store program to distribute an app called Screenwise Meter to consumers. The app, first released in 2012, invited users outside the company to earn gift cards in exchange for letting Google monitor and analyze their data. (Facebook was doing something similar with an app called Facebook Research.)

After the news coverage, Google shut down the app for iOS devices on its own, but Apple still punished Google by blocking its ability to distribute internal apps. The outage only lasted a few hours, but underscored the tremendous power Apple has over Google.

The YouTube factor

On Monday, Pichai also indicated that YouTube, which Google owns, had a strong quarter. The company, however, doesn’t break out YouTube’s revenue. 

“In the long run, I think for me, YouTube is a place where we see users not only come for entertainment,” Pichai said on the call. “They come to find information. They’re coming to learn about things. They’re coming to discover, to research.”

That isn’t surprising. YouTube is the world’s largest video site, with more than 1 billion visitors a month. But it also underscores the need for Google to invest in security and safety, and fight abuse and disinformation. The site is still reeling from coordinated campaigns that used it to try to influence the 2016 election, as well as problems with extremist and objectionable content. 

Pichai was also asked by an analyst if he’s reconsidered the 30 percent cut that Google takes from software developers when they distribute their apps on the company’s Play store. Pichai said the cut is an industry standard (Apple takes the same percentage on its iOS App Store), and noted that there are infrastructure and engagement benefits to being on the Play store. 

“So I think we’ll continue down that path, but obviously, always adapt to where the market is,” Pichai said. 

First published Feb. 4 at 1:08 p.m. PT.
Update, 3:34 p.m. PT: Adds information from Alphabet’s conference call.

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