Google: YouTube’s a $15B Business, But Can’t Stave Off Revenues Miss

Can Google Cloud, YouTube and commerce right Google’s ship? That seems to be the big question following Google parent Alphabet’s dicey fourth-quarter 2019 earnings results on Monday. While the company’s earnings per share of $15.35 topped expectations of $12.53 and its customer acquisition costs nailed the $8.50 billion estimates, its revenue couldn’t quite cross the finish line. Alphabet reported $46.08 billion in revenues, instead of the $46.94 billion analysts anticipated. The results were mixed, but investor reactions weren’t: Wall Street sent shares down 4 percent in after-hours trading. But in a notable first, Alphabet broke out figures from YouTube and its cloud business. The top-line takeaway from these units: YouTube has become a $15 billion business, and Google Cloud is growing like gangbusters. The video platform’s $4.72 billion ad revenue during the quarter capped off a $15.15 billion year — a gain over the previous year’s $11.16 billion — while Google Cloud reported $2.61 billion for the fourth quarter and $8.92 billion for 2019. In 2018, the business unit brought in just $5.84 billion. Of course, the major driver for Google across various platforms is advertising, and overall ad revenue did rise. Ad revenue came in at $37.93 billion, for a gain of more than $4

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