Even with overall video advertising market struggling, YouTube is still seeing its ad business grow.
The Google-owned video platform on Tuesday reported advertising revenue of $8.66 billion in Q2 2024, up 13 percent from $7.66 billion in the Q2 quarter a year ago. That was below Wall Street expectations of $8.93 billion, even as Alphabet as a whole beat Wall Street estimates.
While the YouTube ad numbers are down from 20 percent annualized growth of Q1, when compared to the lagging advertising numbers from traditional media companies, and a reportedly sluggish market from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, it underscores YouTube’s iron grip on the video ad market.
At the corporate Alphabet level, of course, artificial intelligence is still the story of the moment.
“Our strong performance this quarter highlights ongoing strength in Search and momentum in Cloud. We are innovating at every layer of the AI stack,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. “Our longstanding infrastructure leadership and in-house research teams position us well as technology evolves and as we pursue the many opportunities ahead.”
Overall revenue for Alphabet was $84.7 billion, up from $74.6 billion a year ago. Google search made up the majority of that revenue. Google’s subscriptions, platforms, and devices business, which includes YouTube TV, NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube Premium among other offerings, had revenue of $9.3 billion.
More to come.