谷歌再度腾飞的三个理由

对科技界而言，这是一个不错的季度，对谷歌而言，情势则更加喜人。上周四，谷歌的母公司Alphabet发布的财报超过了分析师的预期，这也让公司股价当周上涨了6%。

这是非同寻常的成就，因为不久以前，谷歌还像一家后劲乏力的公司。它核心的搜索业务似乎正走向停滞，投资者对于公司“登月计划”在未来派技术上不断亏钱，也越来越没有耐心。

那如何解释谷歌这个季度的出色表现？从某方面来说，他们（目前）打消了笼罩公司的三大担忧。具体如下：

1. 谷歌解决了移动广告问题

桌面搜索广告是谷歌的摇钱树之一，但是这个市场对他们来说已经成熟了。与此同时，移动端广告一直是他们的心病，因为屏幕太小，品牌不愿付那么多钱。这让一些人担心谷歌长期以来的增长神话即将结束。但这种论调可以到此为止了。正如《华尔街日报》（Wall Street Journal）所说：

谷歌表示，“增长的最大动力来自移动端搜索。”在上次收益电话会议上，谷歌强调了移动端搜索助力下的移动端购物的增速之快。首席执行官桑德尔·皮查分引用了零售商威廉姆斯·索诺玛（Williams Sonoma）的例子，表示该公司的移动端销量同比增长了70%。

与此同时，谷歌从YouTube上获取的广告收入也在大幅提升，这意味着桌面搜索的增速放缓现在已经不是个大问题了。

2. 谷歌的“其他”领域不再是个吸金的黑洞

谷歌涉猎的其他领域很多，汽车、无人机、机器人和智能城市等等不一而足。尽管这些走在时代前沿的项目是科学家的梦想，却是投资者的梦魇。

然而，2015年卢斯·波拉特来到公司担任首席财务官，意味着谷歌在所谓的“其他”业务上有了新的财政纪律。尽管在谷歌，“纪律”只是意味着“登月计划”要减少亏损。最新的财报还带来了另外的好消息：谷歌如今在搜索业务之外还有新的进账了。

路透社报道称：“公司周四发布的财报中‘其他收入’这一项，同比增长了49.4%，达到31亿美元，这已经比Twitter的年收入还高了。这部分业务如今占据了Alphabet总收入的13%，而去年的比例是10%。”它包括Pixel手机和为商业用户提供的云计算服务。

3. 谷歌平息了关于反垄断问题和广告争议的担忧

谷歌的唱衰者们警告称，公司屡遭反垄断调查，又因将广告投入极端主义者或仇恨网站而遭到抵制，这些都带来了风险。但目前来看，这些威胁都影响不大。

在监管方面，特朗普当局似乎无意收紧反垄断法规。在这样的政治环境下，开玩笑称谷歌收购Facebook和新西兰也能获得许可，都不算太过。

至于广告引发的争议——最近一些品牌宣称他们将停止向谷歌支付广告费——似乎并没有影响谷歌的财源。看起来，谷歌承诺更好地管理广告，以及大幅改进搜索算法的报道，已经暂时平息了广告商的怒火。（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

It's been a good quarter for tech and a very good one for Google. On Thursday, its parent company, Alphabet, posted earnings that beat analyst expectations, helping lift its share price 6% for the week.

This is remarkable because, not so long ago, Google looked like a company that was running out of gas. Its core search business looked like it was on the road to stagnation, and investors had grown impatient with its money-losing "moonshot" bets on futuristic technology.

So what explains Google's great quarter? One way you can look at it has (for now) dispelled three big worries that were hanging over the company. Here's a summary:

1. Google fixed its mobile advertising problems

Desktop search ads are a money machine for Google, but the market for them is mature. Meanwhile, mobile ads presented a problem because the screens are small and brands won't pay as much. This led some to fret that Google's longtime growth story was coming to an end. So much for that. As the Wall Street Journal reported:

“The biggest contributor to growth was mobile search,” said [the company]. As it did during its last earnings call, Google emphasized how fast mobile shopping—fueled by mobile search—is growing in particular. [CEO Sundar] Pichai cited the example of the retailer Williams Sonoma, which he said enjoyed a 70% increase in mobile sales year over year.

Meanwhile, it appears ad revenue from YouTube is growing quickly as well—meaning the desktop slowdown is not such a problem for now.

2. Google's "other" category is no longer a black hole

Google dabbles in all sorts of other businesses—cars, drones, robots, and smart cities, for example. But while such projects far-out there were a scientist's dreams, they were an investor's nightmare.

The arrival of chief financial officer Ruth Porat in 2015, however, has meant new fiscal discipline on the so-called "other" businesses. While "discipline" in Google's case means the moonshots are losing less money, the latest earnings call also brought a new form of good news: Google is now making real money from something besides search.

"The business, categorized as "Other Revenue" in its earnings report, posted a 49.4% jump in revenue to $3.10 billion on Thursday—an amount that is already bigger than Twitter's annual revenue. The business now represents about 13% of Alphabet's total revenue, compared with 10% a year earlier," notes a Reuters report, which points to revenue from things like Pixel phones and cloud computing services for business customers.

3. Antitrust and Ad Controversy Worries Recede

Google's negative nellies have warned that the company risks running into antitrust actions, or a financial backlash over its ads appearing on extremist or hate sites. But neither of these threats look very dire right now.

On the regulatory front, it appears the Trump Administration is uninterested in enforcing antitrust rules much at all. It's only slight hyperbole to say in this political climate that Google could get approval to acquire both Facebook and New Zealand.

And as for the ad controversy—which recently led some brands to vow they would pull their money from Google—it doesn't appear to have affected Google's finances. It's likely that the company's vow to do more to police its ads, along with news of big changes to its search algorithm, has placated advertisers for the time being.