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Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

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Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#81

Post by patrickg_zill »

bduerst wrote: post #65
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the data source, Google has 80%+ share of the search engine market in many countries (such as here in the UK). That's a level often considered monopolistic.

No, that's considered having a large market share. Monopolies do not have competitors and have markets that are difficult for other companies to enter. Google has competition, both search (Bing, Baidu, DDG, etc.) and ads (MSN, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Put another way, monopoly companies have a large market share, but not all companies with a large market share are monopolies.

https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-a...

The FTC explains their view of what is a monopoly.

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#82

Post by simonebrunozzi »

lazharichir wrote: post #25
philipodonnell wrote: post #23

Revenue up 26% YOY (good but expected). Big one for me is advertising segment revenue as % of total segment revenue, down to 86.3% from 87.4%, which is good, they have got to diversify away from ads eventually. Disappointing to see the "other bets" still at a paltry $145M and losses are growing faster. Also no mentioned whatsoever of cloud performance. Employee count up 15% but Wow, that was a big fine though.

As a user of GCP, they are moving with new useful products every few weeks. And it's a lot clearer as an offering than the top competitor. Perhaps fewer settings, but much easier to get your head around it. A lot of developers use it as a go-to, let's see how companies react over the next years. And Google Cloud Next '18 from tomorrow, so surely few announcements to come.

Curious to why you say "top competitor" instead of AWS. Pretty much everybody knows who you're talking about.

(disclaimer: I worked at AWS from 2008 to 2014).

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#83

Post by mrep »

mathattack wrote: post #35
lazharichir wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user of GCP, they are moving with new useful products every few weeks. And it's a lot clearer as an offering than the top competitor. Perhaps fewer settings, but much easier to get your head around it. A lot of developers use it as a go-to, let's see how companies react over the next years. And Google Cloud Next '18 from tomorrow, so surely few announcements to come.

Are you an individual user or corporate? Their reputation for large enterprises has been not enough handholding to accompany the complexity. (Relative to IBM/AWS/Oracle) I’m curious about your experience.

How recently have you heard as I read somewhere recently (cannot find yet currently but looking) that Diane Greene massively increased their sales and support staff once she joined as head of cloud?

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#85

Post by chickenfries »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #82
lazharichir wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user of GCP, they are moving with new useful products every few weeks. And it's a lot clearer as an offering than the top competitor. Perhaps fewer settings, but much easier to get your head around it. A lot of developers use it as a go-to, let's see how companies react over the next years. And Google Cloud Next '18 from tomorrow, so surely few announcements to come.

Curious to why you say "top competitor" instead of AWS. Pretty much everybody knows who you're talking about. (disclaimer: I worked at AWS from 2008 to 2014).

> Pretty much everybody knows who you're talking about.

Then saying "the top competitor" is useful to the small number of people who don't.

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#86

Post by ColinWielga »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #47
mudil wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These are not inflammatory comments. These are facts about two monopolies, that are dangerous for society and for the internet in general. Plus there is this important thing called privacy of the individual.

> These are facts about two monopolies If you poke through my comments, you'll find we share antipathy for Facebook and, to a less degree, Google. That antipathy, however, is an opinion. Not a fact. Neither Facebook nor Google are monopolies by any common definition. Their business models disagree with our values. But a lot of Americans do as well. Your comments forego the debate necessary to establish agreement, and…

I recently learned a new word: monopsony. That is, a market where single buyer has enough market power to dictate the terms of sale.

If google is not a monopsony they are certainly very close. This is reflected in the margins of online publishers vs those of google. If you want to publish content online, you have to do it on googles terms.

This degree of market power over the flow of information frankly makes me pretty uncomfortable.

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#87

Post by murukesh_s »

zjaffee wrote: post #68
mathattack wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you an individual user or corporate? Their reputation for large enterprises has been not enough handholding to accompany the complexity. (Relative to IBM/AWS/Oracle) I’m curious about your experience.

As a large corporate user I had a fairly poor experience using google cloud.

What issues did you face? Lack of support? Onboarding issues?

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#88

Post by albertgoeswoof »

AznHisoka wrote: post #8
lazharichir wrote: post #4

Strong headcount growth versus other FANG-like companies.

Is that something that's usually rewarded by Wall Street? I would think being more efficient (ie. making more money with less employees) would be viewed as more successful.

Yes it is, people are an asset in a growth company and not a liability. The ability for Alphabet to survive is to continue to innovate and go into new areas, and that always needs more, new, people. Also if Google has X % of the top new grads joining that’s X % who aren’t joining their competitors etc

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#89

Post by tqi »

jacques_chester wrote: post #48
tequila_shot wrote: post #2

Honest question: First time reading quarter results. How do I interpret these results?

Revenue: sales recorded. This might or might not represent cash coming through the door in this quarter, but it represents that there is an agreement for cash and goods/services to change hands. Operating income: Money left over after you subtract the costs of operating the business and making the sale. In a manufacturing firm, for example, you would subtract the cost of the materials in the goods sold. For Google th…

"Revenue: sales recorded."

Small clarification, this is sales recognized. For example, if your customer signs a 2 year service agreement at the start of a quarter, the revenue reported that quarter should be 1/8th of the total contract amount (assuming you are recognizing revenue at a flat rate).

Re: Alphabet Announces Second Quarter 2018 Results [pdf]

#90

Post by mbesto »

tequila_shot wrote: post #2

Honest question: First time reading quarter results. How do I interpret these results?

The most important number and the least spoken about: free cash flow. They had $4.6B this quarter. In laymen's terms that means - at the end of this quarter they have an extra $4.6B of capital sitting around to deployed for investment (employee bonuses, acquisitions, capital expenditures, etc).

If you're interested in the finance behind software companies, highly recommend following Tren Griffin:

https://twitter.com/trengriffin/status/1021073557978198016

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