Recently, Google has been extremely busy. According to the second-quarter financial report released by its parent company Alphabet on Tuesday, Google's revenue over the past few months has reached nearly $85 billion, an impressive figure indeed. Notably, the search business has performed exceptionally well, generating $48.5 billion in revenue. Additionally, Google's cloud computing division has also broken through the $10 billion mark for the first time, achieving an operating profit of $1 billion.
During the earnings call following the release of the report, Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated that the generative AI solutions provided to cloud customers "have already brought in billions in revenue and are used by over 2 million developers." In his letter to investors, he mentioned, "We are innovating at every level of AI technology." Pichai also emphasized that Google's advantages in infrastructure and internal research teams will help the company seize numerous opportunities in the technological development process.
Earlier, reports suggested that Google had considered acquiring startup Wiz for $23 billion to strengthen its cloud security offerings, but Wiz decided to abandon the deal and instead pursue an initial public offering (IPO), which attracted considerable attention in the financial sector.
Since Google's market capitalization surpassed $2 trillion in April, it has also started rolling out AI summaries powered by its large language model Gemini in searches. However, users found that the tool provided strange answers in some queries, prompting Google to manually remove these features. Despite this, Pichai stated that the launch of AI summaries has still led to "an increase in search usage and user satisfaction with the results."
Furthermore, Google announced that it would abandon its plan to gradually phase out third-party cookies, with Google Chrome now requiring users to make an "informed choice," a decision made in response to similar actions by Safari and Firefox. Pichai stated during the earnings call that he believes "user choice is the best direction for development," adding that the company will continue to invest in privacy-enhancing technologies and listen to feedback from all stakeholders in the ecosystem.
Other businesses under Alphabet have also seen good growth. Google's advertising business reached $64.6 billion, while YouTube ad revenue grew by 13% year-over-year, reaching $8.6 billion. Additionally, the department including subscriptions, platforms, and devices generated $9.3 billion in revenue. Google anticipates another surge in business as it prepares to unveil the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro Fold at its upcoming hardware event in August.
Key Points:
1. 💰 Google's second-quarter revenue reached $85 billion, with the search business contributing $48.5 billion.
2. 🤖 Generative AI solutions have brought in billions for Google Cloud, used by over 2 million developers.
3. 🔍 Google decides to abandon the gradual phasing out of third-party cookies; Chrome will require users to make an "informed choice."