Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the main achievements of its Cloud business that competes with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, etc.
Google’s cloud computing unit last year doubled the number of deals it struck worth more than $1 million. The cloud unit’s G Suite productivity product now has 5 million customers up from 4 million in last year’s first quarter. Google Cloud more than doubled the number of multiyear contracts signed.
Capex for the quarter was $7.1 billion. Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said capital expenditures would moderate significantly this year, but the company would continue to invest in long-term bets on artificial intelligence services, consumer hardware and emerging markets.
Google announced last month that the price of G Suite Basic Edition will increase by $1 from $5 to $6 per user / month. The price of G Suite Business Edition will increase by $2 from $10 to $12 per user / month. There will be no change in the price of G Suite Enterprise Edition customers.
Thomas Kurian is the new head of Cloud business at Google. Google Cloud is a fast-growing business that supports major global 5,000 companies.
Alphabet’s total revenues rose 23 percent to $136.8 billion in 2018, reflecting the benefit of its ongoing investments to deliver exceptional experiences for users and compelling returns for advertisers, partners and enterprise customers.
Alphabet’s fourth quarter revenues grew 22 percent to $39.3 billion thanks to mobile search and important contributions from YouTube, Cloud and Desktop Search.
Research firm Canalys estimates that Google Cloud generated $6.8 billion (+94 percent) revenue for 8.5 percent market share in 2018.
Alphabet revenues by geography
US — $18.7 billion (+21 percent)
EMEA — $12.4 billion (+20 percent)
APAC — $6.1 billion (+29 percent)
Other Americas — $2.2 billion (+16 percent)
Operating expenses increased 27 percent to $13.2 billion. The biggest increase was in R&D expenses, with the larger driver being headcount growth. Growth in Sales and marketing expenses reflect increases in sales and marketing headcount primarily for Cloud and Ads followed by advertising investments mainly in Search and the Assistant.
The number of Google employees at the end of the quarter was 98,771, up 4,399 from last quarter, driven by hiring of engineers and product managers in Cloud business.
Google said it has invested more than €4.3 billion in five data centers across Europe since 2007. This apart, Google in Q4 announced a new data center coming in Denmark.
Rajani Baburajan
