Ad revs tumble in March 2020 but YouTube sees revenue soar in Q1
Details
Editor
| 29 April 2020

Keeping up its recently launched strategy of breaking revenue figures for its operating units, in particular its online video business line, Google parent company Alphabet has revealed that YouTube has enjoyed strong start to 2020 with revenues climbing 33% annually.

Yet even though the company saw its overall revenues for business led by Search, YouTube, and Cloud total $41.2 billion for the quarter ended 31 March 2020 — up 13% compared with Q1 2019 or 15% on a constant currency basis — and despite strong performance during the first two months of the quarter, in March, Alphabet experienced a significant slowdown in ad revenues. Net income inched up 2.7% on an annual basis to $6.836 billion.

Looking at business lines, Google search revenues rose 8.7% compared with Q1 2019 to $22.507 billion while the YouTube online video line saw impressive growth of 33.48% year-on-year growth to total $4.038 billion. Overall, YouTube currently sees over two billion logged-in users visit each month and every day people watch over a billion hours of video and generate billions of views. More than 70% of YouTube watchtime comes from mobile devices.

Commenting on the first quarter results, Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google said that going forward the company was sharpening its focus on executing more efficiently, while continuing to invest in our long-term opportunities.