Advertising and Mobile Drive Alphabet to World’s Most Valuable Company

With advertising driving its strong sales growth, Google parent company Alphabet this week posted earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations, according to CNBC.

CNBC reported that the technology giant reported fourth-quarter earnings of $8.67 per Class A share on $21.33 billion in revenue. Total sales rose 18 percent from the previous year, as advertising revenue climbed 17 percent. Earnings per share rose from $6.76 the previous year.

Analysts expected Alphabet to post earnings of $8.10 per Class A share on $20.77 billion in revenue, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters. That makes Alphabet the most valuable company on Earth.

“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years,” said Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat in a statement.

In an analysis on Forbes, contributor Robert Hof wrote: “But while strength in advertising was pretty broad, it’s significant that both Porat and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai on the earnings conference called out YouTube. Its video ads are especially important because brand advertisers who still spend most of their budgets on television are keenly interested in finding places to spend those dollars online, where especially young people spend more and more of their time. YouTube could be a prime beneficiary of whatever shift happens.”