Google parent Alphabet reported its Q1 earnings which showed weakness in ad revenue but strength in the category that includes Pixel sales.
Alphabet reported its first quarter numbers on Tuesday and the parent of Google reported a small decline in advertising across all Google platforms from $54.66 billion during last year’s first quarter to $54.55 billion this year. That includes a decline in YouTube ads to $6.69 billion in Q1 2023 from $6.87 billion reported during Q1 2022. Google Search ad revenue rose to $40.36 billion for the three months that ended this past March. During the same quarter last year, Google Search generated $39.62 billion in ad revenue.
Total first-quarter revenue for Alphabet amounted to $69.79 billion versus $68.01 billion last year. The company spent a little less on acquiring traffic as those costs dropped to $11.72 billion from $11.99 billion. Headcount rose to 190,711 employees versus the year-earlier 163,906. But this year’s number doesn’t reflect the 12,000 Google employees who were laid off in January.
