Alphabet shares fall as Google misses on sales, overshadowing first disclosure of YouTube revenue

Google-parent Alphabet’s worst fourth-quarter revenue growth since 2015 sent shares down nearly 5 per cent on Monday, overshadowing the disclosure for the first time of YouTube advertising revenue.

Revenue from Google’s cloud service rose 53 per cent to US$2.6 billion in the quarter and advertising on YouTube rose 31 per cent to US$4.7 billion.

In addition, YouTube generated about US$750 million in subscription and other non-advertising revenue, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.

Google through its namesake search engine as well as properties such as YouTube has been the web’s biggest draw for advertisers for a decade, enabling it last month to become the fourth listed company to top US$1 trillion in market capitalisation.

But new concerns have emerged among investors about whether its dominance will last as US antitrust regulators investigate Google and as Amazon and Facebook continue to grow their ads businesses globally.

Google has blamed foreign exchange rates and one-time product changes for recent lapses from the 20 per cent revenue growth investors had grown accustomed to from the company.