Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud at Alphabet, spoke at the Google Cloud Next conference in San Francisco on April 9, 2019.
Michael Short | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Google’s cloud business reported an operating loss of $ 5.61 billion in 2020. It brought in $ 13.06 billion in revenue for the year.
It is the first time that the company has revealed the metric of operational revenue for its business in the cloud.
The unit’s losses appear to be growing as the company invests heavily in the sales team. The company said the cloud unit lost $ 4.65 billion in $ 8.92 billion in revenue in 2019, and lost $ 4.35 billion in $ 5.84 billion in revenue in 2018.
It lost $ 1.24 billion in revenue of $ 3.83 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Alphabet’s last effort to show that it is serious about its cloud unit comes as it tries to diversify revenue, which comes mainly from advertising, a business that showed vulnerability in 2020 – especially in the second quarter. Google Cloud includes data analytics platforms and infrastructure, collaboration tools such as Google Docs and Spreadsheets, and “other services for business customers”.
Wall Street has been seeking additional financial details surrounding the company’s cloud business, which Google has injected resources into to grow while it is a distant third for Microsoft and Amazon heavyweights. Google started breaking revenue from the cloud for the first time a year ago.
The company’s previous attempts to strengthen its cloud unit with CEO Diane Greene, who left in 2018, have failed to capture much of the market. But since former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian came to Google to lead his cloud efforts in 2019, the company has gone through a wave of hiring and acquisitions.