Google earnings signal company weathering slowdown better than expected

Alphabet only narrowly missed estimates for its quarterly revenue on Tuesday, a sign the tech giant may weather an industry-wide slowdown better than expected.

Alphabet reported second-quarter revenue of $69.69bn, 13% higher than same period a year ago, and nearly in line with the average expectation of $69.88bn among investment researchers tracked by Refinitiv.

Despite the freeze, Alphabet did make a significant number of hires in the quarter, adding more than 10,000 employees from the end of March through June. The company ended the quarter with about 174,000 employees worldwide.

In light of these changes, analysts had braced themselves for negative results from Alphabet, as rising inflation has influenced ad buyers to spend less on marketing. Alphabet, like others in the tech industry, has struggled to maintain the huge growth it saw during the pandemic, when much of life moved online.

Still, within the $602bn global online ad industry, Google is expected to maintain market share of 29%, or the biggest share for the 12th straight year, according to Insider Intelligence.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report