Having recently published their respective ad revenue reports, a curious coincidence is notable between the two biggest names in paid web advertising.
Both Google and Microsoft have released figures indicating an identical 32% increase in ad revenues, courtesy of their Google Ads and Microsoft Bing Ads platforms.
Solid Performance at Google
Commenting on what was and is an undeniably impressive achievement; Google credited its ongoing investment in emerging technologies for its recent financial success.
“Our deep investment in AI technologies continues to drive extraordinary and helpful experiences for people and businesses, across our most important products,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and Google.
“Q4 saw ongoing strong growth in our advertising business, which helped millions of businesses thrive and find new customers, a quarterly sales record for our Pixel phones despite supply constraints, and our Cloud business continuing to grow strongly.”
The company also cited consumer confidence and an increase in online spending as core drivers for Google’s stellar ad revenues for the closing quarter of last year.
“Our fourth quarter revenues of $75 billion, up 32% year over year, reflected broad-based strength in advertiser spend and strong consumer online activity, as well as substantial ongoing revenue growth from Google Cloud,” added Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google.
“Our investments have helped us drive this growth by delivering the services that people, our partners and businesses need, and we continue to invest in long-term opportunities.”
Impressive Figures Published by Microsoft
Microsoft reported “search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 32%” during the same time period, indicating almost identical growth to that of Google.
“Solid commercial execution, represented by strong bookings growth driven by long-term Azure commitments, increased Microsoft Cloud revenue to $22.1 billion, up 32% year over year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.
The sentiments echoed by the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, who spoke with confidence about Microsoft’s current and future position.
“Digital technology is the most malleable resource at the world’s disposal to overcome constraints and reimagine everyday work and life,” commented Satya Nadella.
“As tech as a percentage of global GDP continues to increase, we are innovating and investing across diverse and growing markets, with a common underlying technology stack and an operating model that reinforces a common strategy, culture, and sense of purpose.”
Further business highlights published by Microsoft in the company’s financial press release last week included the following among others:
- Office Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 14% driven by Office 365 Commercial revenue growth of 19%
- Office Consumer products and cloud services revenue increased 15% and Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers grew to 56.4 million
- LinkedIn revenue increased 37% (up 36% in constant currency)
- Dynamics products and cloud services revenue increased 29% driven by Dynamics 365 revenue growth of 45% (up 44% in constant currency)
- Revenue in Intelligent Cloud was $18.3 billion and increased 26%, with the following business highlights:
- Server products and cloud services revenue increased 29% driven by Azure and other cloud services revenue growth of 46%
- Revenue in More Personal Computing was $17.5 billion and increased 15%, with the following business highlights:
- Windows OEM revenue increased 25%
- Windows Commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 13% (up 14% in constant currency)
- Xbox content and services revenue increased 10%
- Search and news advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 32%
- Surface revenue increased 8%
Source: Microsoft
In addition, Microsoft reported returns of $10.9 billion in the form of dividends and share repurchases to shareholders during Q2 of fiscal year 2022 – up an impressive 9% in comparison to the same period a year earlier.