Google advertising revenues dropped 8% to $29.9 billion during the second quarter of 2020 as advertiser demand dropped in light of the pandemic’s economic consequences.
The Wall Street Journal said it marked the first time in company history that ad revenues fell.
The results highlight just how strongly the coronavirus pandemic affected media spending.
YouTube was the bright spot as it announced a gain of 5.8% to $3.8 billion in advertising revenues, marking a drop from the 33% rise the company had reported in the first quarter of the year. Compared to 2019 (36% rise), it’s quite a steep fall.
The popular video streaming platform said that its subscription services such as YouTube TV and Music had a $3 billion run rate annually.
YouTube TV now counts more than 2 million subscribers.
“As YouTube TV gets more scale, we will see more opportunities there,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of YouTube. “In the U.S. the TV market is a big part of the advertising market, so if we can invest here and scale up, the opportunities will become more meaningful over time.”
Meanwhile, Alphabet recorded a drop in revenues of 1.7% to $38.9 billion.
Google reported that its cloud computing business staved off some ad sales declines.
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