Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Google - statistics & facts
For over two decades, Google stood as an unrivaled online titan, providing access to a wealth of knowledge with just a few keystrokes. The California-based multinational is the leader in the online search market worldwide, offering digital products and services for online advertising, cloud computing, and software. However, the corporation now faces its biggest challenges to its businesses to date as it struggles to keep up with the artificial intelligence (AI) market trend, which is already reshaping the online search industry and, for the first time, posing a risk to its global dominance.
These changes in Google’s business can be traced back to the impact of the massively popular AI-powered ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers search query results in a conversational format. Despite Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai claiming Google was an “AI-first company” already back in 2016, the corporation seemingly missed the AI race starting gun after the mangled launch of its chatbot Bard, recently renamed Gemini and relaunched as a multi-AI assistant app. The shift has also affected Google’s parent company Alphabet, which is now fiercely focused on machine learning and AI investments, and even started reporting Google’s DeepMind AI project as part of its corporate costs.
Notably, Google’s new ventures sought to secure its future beyond online search, leading to the creation of its own parent company, despite still handling its multitude of projects directly. However, the dramatic changes in the online search market raise the question of whether Google can adapt to new industry trends without jeopardizing its forefront, particularly in the sector that propelled the company to its worldwide lead in the first place.
The AI-powered boom
In 2023, most of Google’s 305.63 billion U.S. dollar record revenues originated from advertising, especially through online searches. Despite the company presenting some of its highest earnings registered to date, results for this year were rather disappointing, as Google Sites advertising earnings amounted to 206.54 billion U.S. dollars but the annual advertising revenue of Google network websites declined to around 32.78 billion U.S. dollars. Additionally, Google Search's global desktop market share stood at 81.9 percent in January 2024, the lowest registered rate in more than 10 years.These changes in Google’s business can be traced back to the impact of the massively popular AI-powered ChatGPT, a chatbot that delivers search query results in a conversational format. Despite Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai claiming Google was an “AI-first company” already back in 2016, the corporation seemingly missed the AI race starting gun after the mangled launch of its chatbot Bard, recently renamed Gemini and relaunched as a multi-AI assistant app. The shift has also affected Google’s parent company Alphabet, which is now fiercely focused on machine learning and AI investments, and even started reporting Google’s DeepMind AI project as part of its corporate costs.
Google’s many answers
Google has significantly broadened its services over the years, especially with the acquisition of the video content-sharing site YouTube standing as one of its most successful enterprises and now represents over 10 percent of Alphabet’s earnings. Its wide range of products also includes the Android mobile operating system, which accounted for over 70 percent of the global smartphone operating system market in 2023. Digital products include the content platform Google Play, the Chrome browser and operating system ChromeOS, its online payment system Google Pay, and its series of mobile devices and hardware like the Chromecast. Meanwhile, the Google Cloud system, along with the company’s overall subscriptions, platforms, and devices increased their participation in Google’s earnings over the last years.Notably, Google’s new ventures sought to secure its future beyond online search, leading to the creation of its own parent company, despite still handling its multitude of projects directly. However, the dramatic changes in the online search market raise the question of whether Google can adapt to new industry trends without jeopardizing its forefront, particularly in the sector that propelled the company to its worldwide lead in the first place.
