Yesterday, after the market hours Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook reported their Q2 earnings of 2020. As millions of people have lost their jobs, it was interesting to see how the big tech giants of the US has fared during the worldwide pandemic.
Apple
Apple reported Q2 2020 results which destroyed the Wall Street estimates. Total net revenue of $59.7 billion was declared, which is a mighty 11% higher than what was recorded in the same period last year. Net profits also increased by 12% from $10.04 billion to $11.2 billion. The major chunk of the increase in revenue has come through the services domain. Revenue from the services segment has increased by 14% whereas from products segment has increased by 10%.
Better financial performance in the quarter has forced Earning per share to rise by almost 19% to reach $2.6. Again, the rise in EPS has beaten the estimates of Yahoo Finance data.
“We’re conscious of the fact that these results stand in stark relief during a time of real economic adversity for businesses, large and small, and certainly for families. We do not have a zero-sum approach to prosperity, and especially in times like this, we are focused on growing the pie, making sure our success isn’t just our success.” – Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook.
Apple also delivered on its commitment to double its annual service revenue within four years. All this had a positive effect on the company’s stock price. Apple shares went up by 4.7% in after-hours trading. The booming performance in the stock market has prompted them to go for a stock split for the fifth time in their history.
The aim behind the stock split is to make the stock cheaply accessible to the investors who are interested to buy the stock. To know more about the stock split, click here. As coronavirus forced offices, schools and colleges to operate from home, demand for products like iPad and Mac surged. iPad had its best June quarter in eight years whereas the Mac had its second strongest quarter in its history.
Amazon
Amidst the global pandemic, when companies are reporting losses, Amazon has just declared the biggest profit in its 26-year history. As compared to the same quarter previous year, Amazon has reported an increase of 29% in their total revenues, from $63.2 billion to $88.9 billion. With the retail shops shut around the world and fears of stepping out in the mind of people has forced them to look for e-commerce to buy things.
This has worked hugely in favours of Amazon whose Online grocery sales tripled year over year. Also, their streaming video platform has seen video hours doubled. The sales in online stores have increased exponentially by more than 48% to reach $45.9 billion in the second quarter.
“Everyone was looking for masks; everyone was looking for gloves; everyone was buying groceries online. That mix is not super profitable,” he said. “What we saw in Q2 was not only did the mix start to shift back to a more normal mix” but that “we also were able to ship a lot more than we had originally thought.” – Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s chief financial officer.
As the demand for online shopping increased, third-party merchants paid Amazon more to sponsor their products extensively. The companies worldwide are forced to shift to the online mode. Thus, Amazon’s cloud services also saw higher demand as the revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) increased by 28% $10.81 billion.
As the demand soared up, Amazon hired 175,000 people in recent months. The costs related to COVID-19 also increased as the company spent around $4 billion on protective equipment for staff. Yet, after incurring high operational expenses, Amazon was able to double in net profit from $26.2 billion to $52.4 billion in just one year.
Alphabet
Alphabet reported Q2 2020 earnings with a 2% dip in total revenue but still beating the street estimates. Total revenue and net income were amassed to be $38.3 billion and $6.96 billion in COVID-hit quarter. A big note of worry for the company is the falling revenue from Google ads for the second straight quarter. Revenue from google ads this quarter was $29.8 billion which is 8% less than what was amassed in the same quarter last year.
“We’re working to help people, businesses and communities in these uncertain times,” said Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google and Alphabet. “As people increasingly turn to online services, our platforms — from Cloud to Google Play to YouTube — are helping our partners provide important services and support their businesses.”
On a brighter side, revenue from Youtube ads and Google Cloud shot up by 5.4% and 43% respectively. The strong growth in both of these segments has aided Alphabet to beat the market estimates. With people putting in their home, video hours of Youtube platform increased which also forced merchants to pay more for their ads to come up. Similarly to AWS, Google Cloud grew massively as offices are switching to the work-from-home model.
Just like the previous three tech giants, Facebook went past all the street estimates and registered an 11% rise in revenue from $16.9 billion last year to $18.7 billion. Due to the lower tax rate, their net income has shot up by more than 90%. Facebook daily active users (DAUs) has increased by 12% year-on-year to reach 1.79 billion in June 2020.
Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) also rose by 12% to stand at 2.70 billion. A 15% rise Family monthly active people (MAP) took the number to 3.14 billion as of June 30, 2020. The company has been under severe social pressure in this quarter. A public campaign was run against the company a while ago. Mark Zuckerberg failed to remove one of the comments of President Donald Trump which was deemed instigating by twitter and the public.
A worldwide ad boycott by more than 1,100 companies took place to support #StopHateForProfit campaign. Some of the major brands that have pulled their ads are Coca-Cola, Ford Motor, Puma, Unilever, etc. Even after so many issues, Facebook has managed to do well financially and overcome the street estimates.
Conclusion
The more this pandemic continues, more these tech giants are going to benefit as people shift to online medium for every reason. Whether they want to study or teach, whether they want to buy or sell, whether they want to talk or meet, all of this will be done via online medium. And, the business models of these tech giants readily support this movement of people during the pandemic.
The large tech giants have seen a huge surge in the demand for their products. The dependence of people has increased on them which has helped them to thrive during this pandemic. Every segment of the economy is depending on the tech facilities and this has created a huge boom for these companies. All in all, it has shaped a perfect Tech world.