Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft And Amazon Achieve Record Results
The five technology giants boost their joint revenues by 11%, to $ 181 billion. The net profit reaches 34 billion dollars, 8% more.
The great American technology has closed a historical quarter, confirming that they live a golden age thanks to the digital revolution. Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook added in the last quarter of 2016 revenues of 181,065 million dollars (168,000 million euros), 11.3% more. The aggregate gains amounted to 34 billion dollars (31.5 billion euros), 8% more. In total, the combined turnover of these companies during their last fiscal year reached 554,857 million dollars.
Apple continues to lead the technology league. The company rebounded in the last quarter of the year thanks to the new iPhone 7. Thus, sales of its mobile grew by 5%, reaching a new record of 78.3 million handsets sold, which helped boost revenues by 3 % To $ 78.4 billion. However, growth is far from what the company achieved years ago. For example, in the last quarter of 2014, after launching the iPhone 6, mobile sales rose 46%.
APPLE SERVICES
In addition to the return to iPhone growth, Apple's most significant quarter is the smooth running of its service business, which includes the App Store App Store, iCloud Cloud Service, iTunes Music Store, Streaming music from Apple Music and the Apple Pay payment system. Revenues from this business grew 18% to $ 7.2 billion.
According to the Wall Street Journal recently, the technology company plans to produce series and TV programming itself, copying the model Netflix and Amazon.
Tim Cook, the company's chief executive, said the company plans to double service revenues to $ 50 billion by 2020, a magnitude similar to that of an entertainment giant like Walt Disney. If you were an independent company, this year would be big enough to be on the Fortune 100 list.
While Apple has regained momentum thanks to iPhone 7, companies like Alphabet (Google) and Facebook stand out for being able to maintain double-digit growth. In the case of Google, the largest player in the digital advertising market, revenues grew 22% to $ 26.1 billion, while net profit rose 8.3% to $ 5,333 million.
ADVERTISING PULL
Advertising is the pillar of Alphabet, accounting for 86% of revenues. In addition, it is a business that is in good health. According to RBC Capital Markets, the company accumulates 20 quarters with advertising growth of at least 20%.
Facebook, the other great player in the online advertising business, outperforms the growth of its competitor. The social network has again beat forecasts after presenting in the last quarter revenues of 8,809 million dollars, 51% more, thanks to the pull of mobile advertising, which grew 80% year-on-year. Net profit increased 128%. According to calculates eMarketer, each Facebook user will generate this year the company revenues of $ 18.25. In addition, the social network wants to boost the advertising linked to the video, competing for the pie of the ads on television.
Amazon, however, did not reach investor expectations, despite closing the Christmas quarter with sales growth of 22% to $ 43.741 billion, while net profit rose 55% to 749 million Of dollars ($ 2.371 billion in 2016). After years of losses, Amazon has secured seven quarters of profit thanks to its cloud computing business, which grew 47% in revenue and 60% in operating profit.
The cloud is also a growth engine for Microsoft. Revenue from Azure, the competing cloud platform for Amazon Web Services, rose 93 percent in the fourth quarter. The cloud already accounts for 24% of the company's turnover.