Decoding Big Tech Giants Quarterly Results: Insights Await!
Big tech companies recently released their quarterly results for Q3 2023. Here are some key insights for industry enthusiasts.
ALPHABET
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, released third-quarter earnings that were above analyst projections. The business was satisfied with the quarterly results. The tech giant credited Cloud, YouTube, and Search for the overall boost. Out of all three, Search continued to be the key driver of their revenue expansion. However, Google’s Cloud business division failed to meet its revenue projections. Since Q1 of 2021, this has been the slowest documented growth in the Cloud business.
Because of this, Alphabet keeps investing in the cloud industry, which is growing in significance as generative AI emerges. YouTube’s advertising income exceeded experts’ forecasts thanks to increases in direct response and brand awareness. This is attributed to Shorts, the TikTok competitor of YouTube with 70 billion views every day.
By the numbers
- Revenue reported was $79.69B, up 11%.
- Google Search and other advertising revenues were $44B, a rise of 11% Y-O-Y.
- Google Cloud computing revenue rose 22% to $8.41B against estimates of $8.64B.
- Advertising revenue was up 9% to $59.6B as against an estimated $59.1B.
- YouTube advertising revenue reported $8B, up 12% Y-O-Y.
- Network advertising revenue was down 3% to $7.7B.
- Traffic acquisition costs were up $12.64B vs estimates of $12.63B.
- Search ad revenue was up 18%.
Google disclosed its quarterly results in the middle of its antitrust lawsuit. Government authorities claim Alphabet uses unlawful monopolistic methods to maintain control over its search engine. Additionally, it’s predicted that more advertisers will spend money on Google advertisements, which could lead to increased rivalry among them. In addition, Google keeps funding its attempts to develop Generative AI in an attempt to overtake its rivals.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, said in the earnings call,
I’m pleased with our financial results and our product momentum this quarter, with AI-driven innovations across Search, YouTube, Cloud, our Pixel devices, and more. We’re continuing to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there’s exciting progress and lots more to come.
Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer; CFO said,
The fundamental strength of our business was apparent again in Q3, with $77 billion in revenue, up 11% year over year, driven by meaningful growth in Search and YouTube, and momentum in Cloud. We continue to focus on judicious capital allocation to deliver sustainable financial value.
META
In terms of earnings and revenue, Meta exceeded the third-quarterly results. This was attributed to the increase in digital advertising spending. Exceeding expectations, the results showed the fastest growth rate, with revenues rising by 23%. Additionally, the company’s user base has grown in the face of fierce competition from rivals such as TikTok.
As its clients recover from a challenging 2022, Meta is witnessing faster growth in its core digital ads businesses. Right now, Meta’s business is doing better than its rivals. Its recovery can be largely traced to increasing the impact of its online ads. Additionally, Meta has cited its significant investments in AI as a crucial technological advancement that has enabled it to attract businesses seeking to serve clients with tailored incentives.
By the numbers
- Revenue rose 23% to $34.15B.
- Facebook DAUs were 2.09 billion on average, a 5% increase Y-O-Y.
- Facebook MAUs were 3.05 billion, an increase of 3% Y-O-Y.
- Family Daily Active People (DAP) was 3.14 billion on average, up 7% Y-O-Y.
- Family Monthly Active People (MAP) was 3.96 billion, higher by 7% Y-O-Y.
- Ad impressions across all Meta apps increased 31% Yo-Y and the average price per ad was down 6%.
Meta anticipates its spending in 2024 will exceed that as it continues to invest in AI infrastructure. Meta expressed a distaste for falling behind in the race towards generative artificial intelligence. To boost engagement, the internet giant intends to roll out AI-powered avatars on Facebook and Instagram. Users may be able to engage with the platform in new ways, receive recommendations, and do more with these identities.
Susan Li, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer stated that for Reality Labs, Meta’s augmented reality and virtual reality division, the company expects operating losses to increase meaningfully Yo-Y due to its ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale the ecosystem.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO said in the announcement,
We had a good quarter for our community and business. I’m proud of the work our teams have done to advance AI and mixed reality with the launch of Quest 3, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, and our AI studio.
MICROSOFT
Microsoft released the first quarterly results of its 2024 financial reports, and the company was off to a great start to the fiscal year. The favorable outcomes were ascribed to Microsoft Cloud’s strength, which outperformed analyst predictions. Microsoft completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a publisher of video games, earlier this month.
Microsoft claims to have the greatest AI infrastructure and the widest cloud footprint. Furthermore, compared to other cloud providers, it has more regions where AI services are installed. Furthermore, while search income growth was still influenced by third-party agreements, the rise in search and news advertising revenue was linked to higher interaction on Bing and Edge.
By the numbers
- Revenue recorded $56.5, higher by 13%.
- Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud Unit revenues were $24.3, up 19% beating estimates of $23.4B.
- Azure revenues rose 29% against an estimated 26.2%.
- LinkedIn’s revenue increased by 8%.
- Microsoft Cloud Revenue was $31.8B, up 24%.
Microsoft is still dedicated to making investments in the cloud and AI potential. In order to increase consumer productivity, it is concentrating on quickly integrating AI into all facets of its technological and business processes. In addition, it will maintain strong growth in the upcoming year thanks to its leadership in the commercial cloud and AI platform wave.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft said,
With copilots, we are making the age of AI real for people and businesses everywhere, we are rapidly infusing AI across every layer of the tech stack and for every role and business process to drive productivity gains for our customers.
Amy Hood, Chief Financial Officer, Microsoft, commented,
We saw healthy renewals, particularly in Microsoft 365 E5, and the growth of new business continued to be moderate for standalone products sold outside the Microsoft 365 suite. In Azure, as expected, the optimization trends were similar to Q4. Higher-than-expected AI consumption contributed to revenue growth in Azure.
Read More: Delve Into What the Quarterly Results For Big Tech Titans Are Saying
AMAZON
Amazon outperformed analysts’ expectations and exceeded its own projections for the third quarter. Growing online sales in its retail section and significant cost reductions drove growth. Additionally, a notable increase in advertising revenue and growth in its cloud business, which kept stabilizing, were its main drivers. According to Amazon, the increase in AWS revenues of over $900M was offset by customers’ shifting focus towards fostering innovation and delivering new workloads to the cloud.
Amazon is still concentrating on buyer behavior and customer happiness. Thanks to the Prime Day event, when over 375 million goods were purchased globally by Prime members, Q3 revenues increased 11% YoY. The company’s introduction of generative AI capabilities into its products and services compensated for the decline in advertising revenue. Demand for daily necessities in areas like health, beauty, and personal care has remained high on Amazon.
By the number
- Revenue posted $143.1B, up 11% Yo-Y vs analysts’ expectations of $141.41B.
- AWS revenue was $23.1B, higher by 12% Yo-Y.
- Advertising sales jumped to $12B, rising 26%.
In addition to warehouse robots, which were already a prominent business for the corporation, Amazon continues to make large investments in generative AI. Further, AWS and Anthropic, Amazon’s generative AI, will work together on future advancements in AWS Trainium and AWS Inferentia chip technology, according to CEO Andy Jassy of Amazon. He thinks that the partnership will support the ongoing acceleration of the benefits to customers in terms of pricing and performance.
Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy said,
We had a strong third quarter as our cost to serve and speed of delivery in our Stores business took another step forward.
Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s Chief Financial Officer added,
We’re ready to make this a great holiday season for customers. Overall, consumers have shown resilience in their spending despite rising interest rates and stubbornly high inflation that has steadily eased since last year. Amazon said Thursday its retail business grew by 6% during the third quarter. It was boosted by the company’s popular Prime Day sales event held in July. It’s also seeing strong customer demand across categories like beauty, health, and personal care items. But we still see customers being cautious about price, trading down where they can and seeking out deals.
He further added that as Amazon enters the holiday season, its operations network and inventory are in the optimal position like never before.
SNAP INC.
Snap INC. reported the third-quarterly results of 2023 and numbers that were better than anticipated by Wall Street. Its ad platform enhancements were the cause of the improvement in outcomes. For quite some time, Snap’s company has been in turmoil. This is because of TikTok’s rivalry, Apple’s modifications to iOS’s ad tracking, and a number of other issues. It was encouraging to see sales rise again. Moreover, Snap improved the ML ranking and optimization for the web, app, and Dynamic Product Ad (DPA) platform by implementing over 17 significant changes.
By the numbers
- Revenue posted $1,19B, up 5% from estimates of $1.11 B.
- DAUs 406 million, high 12% (43 million) Yo-Y.
- Snapchat+ reached more than 5 million subscribers.
By concentrating on investing in ML models to enhance content ranking and personalization across all content offerings, Snapchat is aiming to increase the depth of engagement with its content. Additionally, it will keep utilizing AI technology to provide the community with new services and goods. In addition, the business declared that over 200 million users have sent over 20 billion messages on My AI since its debut.
Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap INC. said in the earnings call,
Our revenue returned to positive growth in Q3, increasing 5% year-over-year and flowing through to positive adjusted EBITDA as our reprioritized cost structure demonstrated the leverage in our business model. We are focused on improving our advertising platform to drive higher return on investment for our advertising partners, and we have evolved our go-to-market efforts to better serve our partners and drive customer success.
OMNICOM MEDIA GROUP
Beyond estimates, Omnicom revealed remarkable revenue growth in the 2023 third quarterly results. With consistent growth in media, advertising, and precision marketing, the business is still on track for the entire year. The outcomes follow significant recent victories, like the $600 million Uber media contract, which was transferred from competitor WPP to Omnicom Media Group in September.
With the release of Omni Assist, Omnicom’s customized version of ChatGPT that improves every task with Omni, it continues to develop its Generative AI capabilities. In addition, it keeps evaluating how Generative AI will impact Omnicom’s operations throughout the entire company and plans ahead.
By the numbers
- Global revenue reported $3.58B, a high of 3.3% or $113.1M organically.
- Advertising and media posted a 6.1% growth to $1.9B.
- Public Relations was down 5.5% against 12.6% delivered in Q3 2022.
- Third-party service costs increased $90.6M or 15.4% to $678.6M organic growth.
Omnicom is confident that its clients will receive the greatest creative skills and capabilities from the newly established Omnicom Advertising Services.
John Wren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Omnicom stated,
We are pleased with our strong organic revenue growth of 3.3%, with notable performances in our Advertising and media, Precision Marketing, and Healthcare disciplines. Our year-to-date organic growth of 4.0% remains in line with our full-year expectations, which reflects the resiliency of our business even in periods of economic uncertainty. Omnicom continued to post strong profitability and earnings growth in the quarter, and our recent business wins validate the benefits of our client strategy in this rapidly evolving marketplace. We are very well positioned for a recovery in business conditions, with a strong balance sheet and leading creativity in all of our service disciplines.
Read More: OMG’s Rudra Khanna on Navigating Marketing’s Dynamic Landscape
Delve In What the Quarterly Results For Big Tech Titans Are Saying
The quarterly results for big tech companies are out. Here are some key takeaways for advertisers and marketers.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s fiscal year has been challenging on many fronts. The acquisition of Xandr, the ad-buying platform, and the increase in search volume revenues failed to produce satisfactory results, making Microsoft miss the mark in Q4. With continuous commitments to investing in artificial intelligence technologies, analysts predicted the quarter to be successful for Microsoft. The company attributed stagnant growth to a decline in advertising spending, which was lower than a quarter on quarter.
Its Talent Solutions contributed to the company’s revenue growth exceeding expectations. Despite the increased revenue, Microsoft reported a reduction in numbers due to low ad spending. The tech giant concluded it was due to marketing solutions decline. LinkedIn’s revenue increased due to growth in Talent solutions. Microsoft Cloud showed promising growth in all of its businesses with improvements in its verticals. Search and news advertising went up with the Xandr acquisition.
By the numbers:
- Revenue was up by 8% increasing to $56.2 billion.
- Advertising and news search revenues up to $86 million, a 3% increase including traffic acquisition cost, 8% increase excluding traffic acquisition cost.
- Azure Cloud revenue growth slowed from 27% to 26%.
- LinkedIn revenue increased by 5%.
- Microsoft Cloud’s quarterly revenue was 21% or $30.3 billion YoY.
Currently, the company is prioritizing developing and spearheading safe generative AI models and practices. Their aim is to help customers use Microsoft Cloud to make the most of their digital resources and drive operations control.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft stated in the Q4 results announcement,
We remain focused on leading the new AI platform shift, helping customers use the Microsoft Cloud to get the most value out of their digital spend, and driving operating leverage.
Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft cited,
Advertising spend was slightly lower than anticipated which impacted Search and News advertising and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. For LinkedIn, we expect revenue growth in the low to mid-single digits.
She further added,
Even with share gains in our hiring business, growth will continue to be impacted by the overall markets for recruiting and advertising, especially in the technology industry where we have significant exposure.
Meta
Meta produced results in Q2 that exceeded analysts’ expectations. Revenues from advertising rose robustly. The revenue uptick signaled the social giant’s ad business recovery after previous years of gloom and cross-border concerns. Meta cited the increase in DAUs for Reels, the company’s short-form video content app. This attracts 200 billion people to Facebook and Instagram. The app also generated $10 billion annually, which is a $3 billion increase Q/Q.
The company credits the increase in ad revenues to Threads, the text-based app, and continued investment in artificial intelligence. The company ascribed the increase in ad impressions to a heightened focus on TikTok’s rival Reels and AI-driven products as the key factors in the positive outcome. Meta commits to AI advancements and data centers. The CEO has also highlighted AI as the focal point of Meta’s growth strategy. He predicts revenue from AI-powered structures for marketers, AI chat agents, and productivity tools for employees.
By the numbers:
- Revenue up to $32 billion, up 11%.
- Facebook DAUs are 2.06 billion on average, an increase of 5% year over year.
- Facebook’s MAUs of 3.03 billion increased by 3% year-over-year.
- Family daily active people (DAP) 3.07 billion on average, 7% up Yo-Y.
- Family monthly active people (MAP) 3.88 billion and 6% higher Yo-Y.
- Ad impressions in Q2 2023 increased 34% year-over-year and the average price per ad decreased 16% Yo-Y.
Susan Li, Meta’s Chief Financial Officer however stated that their ongoing commitment to invest in Reality Labs, Meta’s unit for metaverse-related initiatives negatively impacted their results. However, it will not hamper their ambition to spearhead metaverse developments.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta added,
We had a good quarter. We continue to see strong engagement across our apps and we have the most exciting roadmap I’ve seen in a while with Llama 2, Threads, Reels, new AI products in pipeline, and the launch of Quest 3 this fall.
Alphabet
Alphabet, Google’s parent company overcame its advertising slump in the Q/Q, signaling a return to momentum with favorable results. The revival of their revenue graph was needed to reshape the competitive AI technology landscape. The Q2 results erased concerns about Google losing digital ad prowess to AI advancements on the financial forefront.
The company attributed the overall growth to increasing Google Cloud Services demand, which is anticipated to adopt AI as it advances. The rise in revenues can be traced to costs from YouTube subscriptions and the Pixel family’s content acquisition. YouTube witnessed a surge in stabilized ad spending despite competition from TikTok. Google Cloud revenues were up due to its AI-optimized structure which piqued consumer interest.
By the numbers:
- Revenue was $74.6 billion, up 7%.
- Ad sales rose 3% to $58.1 billion.
- YouTube revenues increased by 4% to $77 billion driven by brand advertising.
- Network advertising revenues were down 5% at $7.9 billion.
- Google Search and other advertising revenues were up 5%, to $42.6 billion.
- Google Cloud revenues are up 28%, at $23.5 billion.
Alphabet is certain that the money needed to finance AI advancements will come from Google’s advertising engine. As such, Google has predicted that it will face more difficulties not only from rivals like ChatGPT, Microsoft, and Bing but also from Amazon’s shopping unit and TikTok and Reddit in trending topics. As part of its efforts to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities, search, and advertising capabilities, the CEO mentioned that AI would be integrated across its product groups.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, said in the announcement,
There’s exciting momentum across our products and the company, which drove strong results this quarter. Our continued leadership in AI and our excellence in engineering and innovation are driving the next evolution of Search and improving all our services.
CFO Ruth Porat commented,
We expect elevated levels of investment in our technical infrastructure, increasing through 2023 and continuing in 2024. The primary driver is to support AI opportunities across Alphabet, including investments in GPUs and proprietary TPUs, as well as data center capacity. With all that said, we remain committed to durably re-engineering our cost base to help create capacity for these investments in support of long-term, sustainable financial value.
Amazon
Amazon released its second-quarter earnings, and the numbers were impressive. According to CEO Andy Jassy, Amazon saw developments in areas they had been steadily advancing in for the past quarters. The e-commerce giant attributes its revenue growth to the rise in price points, selections, and convenience available to its consumers. Amazon continues to see strong demand for everyday essentials, positive feedback from customers, and updates to its website, mobile apps, and customizations.
AWS growth stabilized in Q2. Moreover, it continues to grow with customers, partner networks, functionality, and operational presentation. AWS revenues were twice as high as any other provider. Amazon is constantly working to further AWS technologies and features to aid customers in leveraging generative AI, productivity, and security. Ad revenue increased due to performance-based advertising efforts, improved customer relevance of ads, and ML benefits to understand ROI and ad spending for brands.
By the numbers:
- $134.4 billion revenue, an increase of 11% Y-o-Y vs estimates of $131.5 billion by Refinitiv analysts.
- Advertising revenue is up 22% Yo-o-Y, to $10.68 billion.
- AWS sales revenue growth of 12% Yo-Y to $22.1 billion.
- Subscription service revenues including Prime memberships were up 14%, at $9.8 billion.
Amazon is currently working on enhancing Machine Learning models to help marketers access audiences that were difficult to reach with Amazon ads. During an AWS event in New York, Amazon also committed to enhancing generative AI-powered applications with the latest and improved pre-trained large language models (LLMs).
CEO Andy Jassy mentioned in the earnings call,
As the economy has been uncertain over the last year, AWS customers have needed assistance cost optimizing to withstand this challenging time. They have also needed assistance reallocating spending to new initiatives that better drive growth. We’ve proactively helped customers do this.
Apple
Apple reported their results for the third quarter that were better than their expectations, however, revenue was down Yo-Y. The company attributed the growth in its revenue to healthy iPhone sales across the world. Apple set an all-time high record for services revenues, including advertising, the app store, and music, exceeding its predictions. The slump in iPad sales revenue was accredited to the iPad Air launch in the prior year. They continue to invest in product enhancements to encourage customer satisfaction which was reported to be 98% across the U.S.
By the numbers:
- Revenue was $81.8 billion, down 1% Yo-Y.
- iPhone revenues are $39.7 down 2% Y-o-Y.
- $6.8 billion, down 7%, for Mac.
- iPad $5.6 billion, down 20%.
- Wearables home, and accessories revenues were $8.3 billion up 2% with expectations.
- Services revenue $21.2 acceleration of 8%.
Apple is releasing its most ambitious and advanced personal electronic device, the Apple Vision Pro early next year for ordinary consumers. It is currently only available to advertisers, content creators, etc for demo purposes and has received stellar reviews.
AI and machine learning will continue to be an integral part of product design. Apple is planning to introduce AI and ML-powered live voicemail in iOS 17. They have also invested in research into generative AI and continue to responsibly enhance their products with these technologies. This is with the goal of enriching people’s lives.
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO said,
We are happy to report that we had an all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions, and we saw continued strength in emerging markets thanks to robust sales of iPhone. From education to the environment, we are continuing to advance our values, while championing innovation that enriches the lives of our customers and leaves the world better than we found it.
Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, further remarked,
Our June quarter year-over-year business performance improved from the March quarter, and our installed base of active devices reached an all-time high in every geographic segment.
Snapchat.INC
Snapchat reported its quarterly results and they were mixed. Although revenue was up Q/Q, it still saw a Yo-Y dip. Just like its competitors, Snapchat is grappling with a slump in advertising revenues. Snapchat also introduced an exciting and innovative AI feature a few months back to keep the platform happening and engaged. My AI, Snapchat’s AI chatbot is now integrated into group chats, recommendations, and ‘Lens’ suggestions.
By the numbers:
- Revenue was $1,068 million compared to $1,111 million the previous year
- DAUs 397 million, an increase of 50 million or 14% Yo-Y
- 4 million global users for paid subscriptions introduced in the previous year
This quarter, the social media company pledged to improve advertisers’ expectations through machine learning technology. It will do so to upgrade its framework, find creative approaches to measuring and optimizing ad spending, and encourage new leadership. Its continuous investment in ML infrastructure has improved company ranking and content personalization.
Snapchat believes that it will face healthy community growth in the next quarter with expected DAU increases of 405 to 406 million.
Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s CEO said,
We are excited by the progress we have made delivering increased return on investment for our advertising partners, growing our community to 397 million daily active users, and reaching more than 4 million Snapchat+ subscribers.
Omnicom Media Group
Omnicom Media Group ended its second quarter of 2023 on a high note. The organic growth rate was up 3.4% compared to the previous quarter’s results, placing it within its projected range. Omnicom spearheads generative AI developments in the media business. Their ongoing strategic alliances with companies like Adobe, AWS (Amazon Web Services), and Microsoft help them do this.
The business has also promised to invest in media sales capabilities, environmentally friendly technology, and data from first parties. They are currently realigning their staff to match strategy choices and outlook.
By the numbers:
- 3.4% organic revenue growth in Q2 23, with $3,609.9 million revenue
- Advertising Media revenue growth was 4.2%, while organic growth grew by 5.1%
- Third-party costs which include supplier costs the company incurs when providing services to clients increased to $86.8 million
- Organic growth rate for Public Relations was up 0.1%, while execution & support decreased by 3.8%
John Wren, Chairman and CEO of Omnicom said in the announcement,
While the balance of the year will continue to see economic uncertainty, we are entering a dynamic and exciting new era for our company. Omnicom has secure leading positions in generative AI technologies and partnerships to deliver on our promise to achieve the best outcome for our clients and increase the operational efficiency of our company.
eBay
EBay has exceeded Wall Street’s expectations in all key metrics and delivered positive results. However, the marketplace’s weakened momentum among active buyers was worrying. Gross merchandise sales decreased also recorded.
In spite of this, the e-commerce marketplace believes that its increasing focus on AI integration into its platform will drive further user momentum. The company currently prioritizes laying a strong foundation for generative AI tools across the website to aid marketers and product listers.
By the numbers:
- Revenue was up to $2.51 billion, an increase of 5% from the previous year
- Advertising revenues were $367 million, up 33.5% Yo-Y.
- Promoted Listings revenue was up 47%, reporting $341 million
- The active buyer base declined by 4%
In the next five years, eBay plans to implement AI enhancements in every part of its organization. They are constantly integrating generative AI features into their site. They are also working towards reinventing the e-commerce landscape. Its work has already produced stellar results and hopes to deliver long-term results.
Jamie Iannone, CEO said,
The foundational work we’ve accomplished over the past 3 years has set us up for a new phase of innovation. Our teams are focused on thinking bigger and moving faster as we build game-changing features and functionality for customers to keep eBay at the forefront of eCommerce.
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