Both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising revenue were up this past quarter, year over year. Google ad revenue was up 11% and Microsoft Advertising revenue was up 8%. The previous earnings, Google ad revenue was up 9.5% and Microsoft ad revenue was up 10%.
Either way, Google's ad revenue of $65.52 billion trailed analyst estimates of $65.94 billion, so the stock price was down.
GOOG Earnings
The Google earnings release (PDF) has Google's revenues of $86 billion, up 13% year over year from $76 billion. Google's ad revenue specifically was $65.52 billion, up 11% year over year from $59 billion. Net income jumped 52% in the fourth quarter to $20.7 billion, or $1.64 per share, from $13.6 billion, or $1.05 per share, a year earlier. Operating margin, the profit left after subtracting costs to run the business, expanded to 27% from 24%.
Here is a chart plotting Google's overall revenue, then ad revenue and then profit over the past several quarters:
Here is the snippet from the earnings report:
Sundar Pichai, CEO, said: “We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come.” Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said: “We ended 2023 with very strong fourth quarter financial results, with Q4 consolidated revenues of $86 billion, up 13% year over year. We remain committed to our work to durably re-engineer our cost base as we invest to support our growth opportunities.”
MSFT Earnings
Microsoft overall revenue was $62 billion, up 18% year over year, ad revenue was up 8% with net income at $21.9 billion, up 33% year over year. Last quarter, Microsoft's ad revenue was up 2% more, it was up 10%.
Microsoft wrote, "Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 8% (up 7% in constant currency)."
Here is the chart showing the percentage growth for Microsoft advertising:
"We’ve moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale," said Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft. "By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we’re winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector.”
“Strong execution by our sales teams and partners drove Microsoft Cloud revenue to $33.7 billion, up 24% (up 22% in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.
