Alphabet’s Earnings Disappoint. Blame It on the iPhone.
- 6 years ago
Alphabet’s Earnings Disappoint. Blame It on the iPhone.
Its profits were weighed down by an increase in traffic acquisition costs — the fees Google pays companies like Apple to ensure
that its search engine is the default option when people open a browser on the iPhone.
Alphabet said Google’s traffic acquisition costs in the quarter increased 33 percent from a year earlier, to $6.45 billion.
In the fourth quarter, users clicked on 48 percent more ads on Google sites — including search and YouTube — than a year earlier
SAN FRANCISCO — Quarter after quarter, investors have become accustomed to Alphabet’s revenue and profit growing at a pace
that seems to defy gravity for a company well past its start-up years.
Last year, Bernstein Research estimated that Google would pay about $3 billion to
Apple in 2017 to remain the default search option on Apple’s mobile devices.
Its profits were weighed down by an increase in traffic acquisition costs — the fees Google pays companies like Apple to ensure
that its search engine is the default option when people open a browser on the iPhone.
Alphabet said Google’s traffic acquisition costs in the quarter increased 33 percent from a year earlier, to $6.45 billion.
In the fourth quarter, users clicked on 48 percent more ads on Google sites — including search and YouTube — than a year earlier
SAN FRANCISCO — Quarter after quarter, investors have become accustomed to Alphabet’s revenue and profit growing at a pace
that seems to defy gravity for a company well past its start-up years.
Last year, Bernstein Research estimated that Google would pay about $3 billion to
Apple in 2017 to remain the default search option on Apple’s mobile devices.