Google ad revenues surge 24% in latest quarter

Google helped its parent company Alphabet to a higher-than-expected 26% rise in revenues to $32.66 billion, although its profits were hit by the European Commission's planned fine for anti-competitive behaviour.

The driver was largely the 24% surge in Google’s ad revenues to $26.24 billion for the second-quarter of 2018.

However, its non-advertising revenues grew by more than a third to $4.4 billion as its cloud computing offering picked up important new customers like US retailer Target.

Alphabet’s net income totalled $3.2 billion, even after taking account of the €4.34 billion ($5.07 billion) fine announced by the European Commission last week.

The commission ruled that Google had illegally used the Android mobile operating system to "cement its dominant position" in search.

This year, Google will generate $84.69 billion in total net digital ad revenue worldwide, giving it a 31% share of the total worldwide digital ad market, according to eMarketer, with Facebook a distant second with an 18% share.