Alphabet reported significant growth in the first quarter of 2021, with revenues reaching $55.31 billion, nearly matching the $56.9 billion achieved in the fourth quarter of 2020. Additionally, the company posted $17.9 billion in profits compared to $15.2 billion previously. There was also a 34% increase in year-over-year revenues. Google's cloud revenues amounted to $4.05 billion, and YouTube ad revenues reached $6.01 billion.
Google’s revenues increased by 34% compared to the same period last year, announcing advertising revenues of $44.68 billion in the first quarter. This is a substantial increase from $33.76 billion in the same quarter last year, marking the fastest annual growth rate in at least four years. YouTube ads totaled $6.01 billion during the quarter, reflecting a 49% rise from the previous year, making the platform the biggest beneficiary of the pandemic compared to other social media sites.
The video platform saw usage growth from 73% of adults in the U.S. in 2019 to 81% in 2021. Alphabet stated, "Shorts videos are garnering 6.5 billion views daily, a significant increase from 3.5 billion at the end of January." Google's cloud revenues grew by 46% year-over-year to $4.05 billion, encompassing data analytics platforms, infrastructure, and collaboration tools, such as documents, spreadsheets, and other services for enterprise clients.
Moreover, Alphabet recorded gains of $4.84 billion in the valuation of some investments during the third quarter. However, the company's other bets sector, which includes the health technology unit Verily and self-driving unit Waymo, suffered losses of around $1.15 billion on revenues of $198 million. It is difficult to determine the performance of Google's hardware business since Alphabet aggregates it under Google Services, which includes YouTube, Search, Ads, Chrome, and Android program revenues.
