Alphabet Inc. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue from its core search advertising business that fell short of analysts’ expectations.Revenue excluding partner expenses was $72.3 billion in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company said in its earnings report on Tuesday. That was better than the $71 billion analysts had expected. Net income per share was $1.64, beating Wall Street estimates of $1.59 per share.
Revenue from Alphabet's core search business, driven by advertising, was $48.02 billion, slightly below analysts' forecasts of $48.15 billion. The stock fell 5.7% in after-hours trading.
The disappointing results come as Google's search engine faces broader uncertainty. Its lead is being threatened by new competition as the rise of generative artificial intelligence allows companies like Microsoft and OpenAI to offer programs that answer user questions in a more conversational way, such as the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
Google is racing to incorporate the technology into its products, releasing its most powerful large-scale language model, Gemini, last month. But Alphabet has been worried that it is moving too slowly and has been catching up with Microsoft in the artificial intelligence race.