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 active users. Gmail now joins other Google services such as Search, Android, Maps, Chrome, YouTube, and Google Play which have more than 1 billion monthly active users.
Other Bets
For the full year of 2015, Alphabet’s Other Bets business reported revenues of $448 million, up 37% from $327 million in the same period last year. However, Other Bets reported an operating loss of $3.57 billion, compared to the loss of $1.942 billion. Google CFO Ruth Porat mentioned that reported revenue for Other Bets was primarily generated by Nest, Fiber and Verily (life sciences business).
Porat added that capital expenditure for Other Bets was $869 million for the full-year, primarily reflecting investment in the Fiber business. Pichai also mentioned the comapny formed strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical companies such as Dexcom, J&J, Novartis, and Sanofi.
Paid clicks increase to 31%
Porat added that aggregate paid clicks increased 31% and 40% on Google’s websites. Cost-per-click (CPC) dropped 13% on a year-on-year basis and 5% sequentially. “The movement in Google Sites paid clicks and CPCs primarily reflects the continued growth in YouTube TrueView,” Porat said.
Porat also mentioned that Google made changes to its ad formats in the preceding quarter which helped bring down the cos-per-click down and boost paid clicks. It’s also worth noting that in May 2015, YouTube added buy buttons to TrueView ads, where users can click to buy stuff after being redirected to that product page.
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Financials
– Net profit was stood at $4.92 billion a rise of 5% from $4.66 billion in the same quarter last year.
– Alphabet reported revenues of $21.33 billion, an increase of 17.82% from $18.10 billion in the same period last year.
– Google as segment reported revenues of $21.18 billion, an increase of 18% from $17.99 billion from the same quarter last year.
– Google’s websites reported revenues of $14.94 billion, an increase of 20% from $12.43 billion in the same period last year.
– Advertising revenue stood at $19.08 billion, increasing 17% from $16.31 billion in the same period last year.
