Google's chart-topping video asset, YouTube, helped drive the unit's core Internet business -- which includes search and Android as well -- up 14 percent to $74.5 billion in 2015, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) said in its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings report. The revenue rise helped Google, now listed as a unit underneath Alphabet's umbrella, realize yearly income of $28 billion and a 38 percent profit margin, up 3 percent from a year previously.
"The strong performance of the core Google unit reflected robust demand for ads for holiday shopping and the fast-growing YouTube digital-video service," a Wall Street Journal article said. Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said that YouTube's revenue is growing significantly, WSJ noted, although specific figures, as usual, weren't mentioned on the earnings call.
YouTube's new SVOD component, YouTube Red, is unlikely to have contributed much if anything to the service's revenues -- although it launched in the fourth quarter, subscribers received a 30-day free trial, and it's unknown how many stayed aboard after their trial ended.
For the fourth quarter of 2015, the Google unit's websites saw revenues of $14.9 billion, up 20 percent over the same period in 2014. Gross advertising revenues were $19.08 billion, up 17 percent year over year. It posted operating income of about $8 billion.
Overall, Alphabet's net income in the fourth quarter reached $4.92 billion with earnings per share of $7.06, up from $4.68 billion and $6.79 EPS a year previously. Quarterly revenue was $21.33 billion, up 18 percent from $18.1 billion the year previous.
For more:
- see this WSJ article
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