Google is seeing growth in search volumes, but AI is driving down profitability
In the third quarter, Google once again faced the question that is troubling its investors: is AI beginning to undermine its search engine, or is it merely making it harder to monetise? The group posted 12 per cent year-on-year growth in its “Search & other ” revenue, to $63 billion, whilst its total turnover rose by 25 per cent year-on-year.… Sundar Pichai also highlighted this quarter as having seen the sharpest rise in search query rates in five years. Since the shift towards social media, Google has been affected by technological revolutions, but the search engine always finds a way to come out on top. The resilience of the web pioneer is rarely called into question. Monetisation The problem for Alphabet is not traffic, but what it generates. Philipp Schindler…