Alphabet Inc (formerly the friendly-sounding Google Inc) posted net profit of $4.92 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 (Q4 2015), a rise of 5% from $4.66 billion in the same quarter last year. The company also reported revenues of $21.33 billion, an increase of 17.82% from $18.10 billion in the same period last year. This quarter, Alphabet also reported revenues from its Other Bets division which includes its fiber business, life sciences and X business (the company's moon shot research and development division). Here are few takeaways from Alphabet's earnings and call with analysts: Google Play spending helped by investments in payments in India Google mentioned that user spending on Google Play increased 30% in the whole of 2015 globally. CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned that investments in payments in countries like India helped Google Play's spends. "We had particularly strong growth in this area in countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia and Mexico, thanks to continued investments in payments capabilities," Pichai said. In September 2015, Google had rolled out physical gift cards for the Play Store in offline retail stores. The company also reduced the minimum purchase price for apps on Google Play in India to Rs 10 in August. Prior to this, the minimum purchase price for apps on Google Play was Rs 50 as it is for every other country. India is the first country where the lower pricing tier was introduced. Gmail hits 1 billion active users Google also reported that its email service Gmail has hit 1 billion…
