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Google reported a better than expected revenue of $US74.6 billion, up 7%, for the June quarter, reflecting improving advertising revenue.
This is the second quarter in a row that advertising revenue has lifted, following weaker growth in 2022. It follows an announcement in January to cut 12,000 jobs, a reaction to over hiring during the post pandemic lockdown boom.
YouTube advertising was $7.66 billion in the June quarter, up from $7.34 billion in the same three months of 2022.
Google network advertising was $58.14 billion, up from $56.28 billion.
Google says the financial results reflect an acceleration of revenue growth in both search and YouTube, as well as momentum in cloud.
“There’s exciting momentum across our products and the company, which drove strong results this quarter,” says CEO Sundar Pichai.
“Our continued leadership in AI and our excellence in engineering and innovation are driving the next evolution of Search, and improving all our services.
“With fifteen products that each serve half a billion people, and six that serve over two billion each, we have so many opportunities to deliver on our mission.”
June quarter numbers:
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Alphabet Inc, the parent company of Google and YouTube, has reported a 7.06% increase in its revenues during Q2 of FY23 at $74,604 million, on a YoY basis. The revenue for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal stood at $69,685 million.
The tech giant also saw a surge of 3.30% YoY in its revenue generated from Google advertising in Q2 of the current fiscal year as the total ad revenue for the quarter stood at $58,143 million, with Google Search and other accounting for $4,2628 million, YouTube ads for $7,665 million and Google Network for $7,850 million.
In Q2 of FY22, Alphabet had clocked in $56,288 million through Google advertising, of which, Google Search and others accounted for $40,689 million, YouTube ads for $7,340 million and Google Network for $8,259 million.
This time around, while Google Search and others grew by 4.77% and YouTube ads by 4.43%, on a YoY basis, Google Network saw a slashing of 4.95% as compared to the second quarter of the previous fiscal year.
In addition to this, Alphabet’s Operating Income during Q2FY23 summed up to $21,838 million which is up 12.26% YoY, from the $19,453 million it clocked in during the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
The Net Income of the company also went up by 14.79% from $16,002 million in Q2 of FY22 to $18,368 million in Q2 of FY23.
On the other hand, the cost and expenses involved in Alphabet’s Sales and Marketing were also up 2.27% YoY and stood at $6,781 million in the second quarter of the current fiscal year juxtaposed to last year’s $6630 million.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet and Google, said, “There’s exciting momentum across our products and the company, which drove strong results this quarter. Our continued leadership in AI and our excellence in engineering and innovation are driving the next evolution of Search, and improving all our services. With fifteen products that each serve half a billion people and six that serve over two billion each, we have so many opportunities to deliver on our mission.”
Similarly, Ruth Porat, CFO, Alphabet and Google, also pointed out that the company’s financial results reflect continued resilience in Search, with an acceleration of revenue growth in both Search and YouTube, as well as momentum in Cloud.
“We continue investing for growth while prioritising our efforts to durably reengineer our cost base company-wide and create capacity to deliver sustainable value for the long term,” Porat added.
In the quarterly update, Alphabet also mentioned that Porat will assume the newly created role of President and Chief Investment Officer, Alphabet and Google, effective September 1, 2023, and will be reporting to Pichai.
However, till the company searches for and selects her successor, she will continue to serve as CFO, including leading the company’s 2024 and long-range capital planning processes.
Sydney Campos is co-founder and chief strategy officer at Ascend.
Sydney CamposPut your ear close enough to the tech industry street and it’s not hard to notice X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, resembling something like the Springfield Tire Fire. Owner Elon Musk has certainly made his mark on the company since acquiring it in late October of last year. The tumult of Musk’s tenure has led many to seek greener, less user-hostile pastures in decentralized services like Mastodon and Bluesky, as well as the upstart Threads from the Instagram team.
Part of the problem in signing up for different social networks, however, is managing them. Indeed, from a disability perspective, there can be immense cognitive load associated with hopping from app to app to app, not to mention incessantly asking the question of what content should be posted where. This isn’t a trivial consideration for anyone, but especially for someone who’s disabled. Not only has Twitter historically been a source of accessibility and community, its degradation as a one-stop shop for news and socialization means someone with certain cognitive and/or motor conditions have to work harder in trying to recapture the best parts of Twitter elsewhere. These aren’t at all trivial concerns.
For Sydney Campos, she hopes Ascend can help fill that void.
The social network, which has apps on iOS and Android, describes itself on its website as “a new social media community-platform designed to Boost our lives, based on sharing genuine value and inspiring personal growth.” Perhaps somewhat presciently given Twitter’s troubles in accurate times, Ascend further explained its founders “heard the urgent call to develop a new connective platform that positively supports humanity’s evolution and spent the last two years developing the vision into an intuitive, multi-faceted mobile app.” Essentially, Ascend is yet another lifeboat rescuing weary survivors of Twitter’s ever-sinking ship.
Ascend, which launched in February 2022, has a video on YouTube.
In an interview with me conducted earlier this year, Campos, a self-described empath who grew up in San Francisco’s Lower Haight neighborhood, said she’s always considered herself a power user of social media. Campos, who co-founded Ascend and serves as its chief strategy officer, has long been fascinated by social media’s ability to connect people in myriad ways, telling me she met her business partner through a message sent on Instagram and got a book deal through Facebook. She became disenchanted, however, with all the “interference and manipulation and censorship and like” of the biggest networks. Armed with dissatisfaction and the motivation to build better, she sought to create something that eschews all that and has a decidedly better-calibrated moral compass.
“I created it for myself, first and foremost,” Campos said of the impetus for starting Ascend. “I wanted a new place to play where I can just have everything I want to share in one place [instead of] managing 10 different platforms with censorship and spam and all these things. I wanted a place where there’s a new value system [and] a new standard of how we can play in a more elevated way where people are actually held to be responsible for what they’re creating in a different way.”
Campos wants Ascend to be a place for true community amongst users. She lamented many of social media’s longstanding problems in buying followers, the rise in bot accounts, and other nefarious things people do to try and game the system and ratchet up abuse and harassment. She’s frustrated with all the “fluff” on places like Twitter today, as well as the obsessive need for some to use use social networking as a means of always keep up with what’s trendy. Ascend is a refutation of all that.
“I hope with Ascend, we created an environment where people are challenged and inspired and invited to be specific as to like, ‘What do you actually want to talk about? ‘What do you actually want to share that’s going to be most useful?’ Campos said. “I want people to feel that people are going to receive the most value from your [content] and incentivize for being authentic. I don’t see anywhere else that does that.”
Cursory glances at the pages for Ascend on the App Store and the Google Play indicate the service isn’t setting the world on fire—14 reviews on the former, 11 on the latter—but rates highly with a 4-star rating. According to Campos, feedback about Ascend has been positive. She said people have told her they “feel different when they open the app” but caveated they also recognize the learning curve. Upon signing up, Ascend asks users to complete a personality questionnaire; in addition, Campos said Ascend was “intentionally designed” to curb anxiety over notifications.
“We felt that, right at the beginning, we wanted to just do the right thing,” Campos said of Ascend’s design philosophy. “So much of our design is we just wanted to do the right thing and create a place that feels good [and] that’s going to be nourishing and supportive for someone to have almost a relaxing experience where they can learn and read and take in content that they’re gravitating to.”
People say Ascend is “unlike anything else they’ve seen,” Campos said.
The jury’s still out as to whether Ascend reaches critical mass. Nonetheless, Campos and team’s goals and vision for their platform are laudable. Given Ascend’s steadfast focus on building community, it’s certainly possible to imagine the service could be a place where the disability community congregates in the future. This is the ripple effect of X (née Twitter) becoming what it is; X isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future, but the damage sure seems to be irreparable. This is why Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and yes, Ascend, all share common ground: they’re all trying to make social media better in their own images. Just as time and technological progress are immutable forces, it’s likely X will be to this generation what MySpace was to the prior’s: a vestige of the past. The sobering truth is, Musk’s stewardship sure seems to only hasten the company’s journey on the road to irrelevancy.
“I see Ascend being the new social media platform of the planet, where everybody is gravitating to and where everyone wants to connect, everyone wants to create on,” Campos told me of her hopes and dreams for Ascend for the future. “I see a lot of other companies becoming involved and wanting to play, and collaborate and share as well. And a whole new template for advertising and the way that we empower conscious companies—brands that are really making a difference on this planet to also be content creators on ascend to a whole new economy. I see Ascend being a part of a whole new economy that really supports people in sharing their gifts and living life fully and authentically.”
She continued: “I see Ascend really helping to uplevel the way that humanity is expressing its creativity and innovation, and maybe also inspiring the next wave of social media.”
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D&AD Shift with Google is on a mission to #ShiftCreativity by helping creatives enter the industry from outside traditional pathways to shift their creative talent into career-making skills.
#ShiftCreativity’s approach aims to shake up old industry paradigms to benefit self-taught creative talent, creating a fresh system to both access and flourish in the commercial creative industry.
Internationally, Shift has trained over 300 creatives in London, New York, Sydney, Hamburg and Berlin since 2016 with an average of 74% of Shifters going on to creative jobs and placements after completing the programme.
Shifters go on to write for Apple. They strategise for Spotify. They have creative ideas for Disney. They direct Stormzy, animate for Katy Perry and shoot for Vogue. Shifters are employed by every major advertising and design agency network. They win Pencils. And sit on the board at D&AD.
After the program launch in Sydney in 2022, 88% of the inaugural class of Shifters have gone onto working in the Sydney commercial creative industry employed by the likes of The Monkeys, Heckler, Abel, and BMF Australia.
The Shift Sydney 2023 cohort of 17 aspiring creatives have been learning from industry pros, honing their craft, polishing their brief work and creating their portfolios.
After five months of learning, answering briefs by Google, adidas and The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, now, this group of creatives are ready to take their talent even further to make an impact on the creative industry.
The Shift Sydney Class of 2023 are: Ella Gilberg, John Paine, Jess Stapleton, Minori Ueda, Raf Potenza, Daniel Muscat, Rey Vargas, Rodney Todd, Marmi Alatipi, Tom Gregory, Rubee-Rose Stephenson, Kent Boumaïza, Andrew Riis, Sammara Woolrich, Ayah Darwich, Binti Kamara, Hannah Churchill.
“Just like other regions, we know that our Australian commercial creative industry severely lacks diversity. But due to various barriers at play, often agencies struggle to reach candidates from diverse backgrounds. Shift forces us to rethink how we recruit by equipping self-taught creatives with the industry skills they need to thrive.” - Lauren Chibert, D&AD Shift with Google Sydney lead producer.
"It was incredible to see teams of talented, passionate creatives come together and produce creative strategies for tackling one the world's biggest challenges – climate change. In just a day, these incredibly talented individuals came up with exciting, new communications strategies with huge potential for impact. Shift isn't just an exciting opportunity for up-and-coming creative leaders – it's an opportunity for the entire industry to be challenged by people from all walks of life who are ready to use design for good." Michael Poland, campaign director, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
view more - Awards and Events D&AD, Fri, 18 Aug 2023 13:46:05 GMTThe next force to be reckoned with in public relations and marketing isn’t an agency in New York, Boston, or LA. In fact, it’s not an agency at all. Rosarium PR & Marketing Collective is a fast-growing public relations and marketing company that recently celebrated its first anniversary. And within that short time, Rosarium has already revolutionized what business owners can expect from a marketing partner.
Founded by Alexis Rose Quintal, an industry veteran with more than 10 years of experience, Rosarium began with a common-sense mission — to make more successful entrepreneurs by making it easy to be an entrepreneur. It may be a simple idea, but it’s one which is resonating with startups all over the country. One client quickly turned into dozens, and Rosarium has never looked back.
“Entrepreneurs, business owners, executives — Their public relations and marketing needs are all centered on two things: professionals who understand them and solutions that make sense for their businesses,” Quintal said. “That’s why I built my entire staff with business owner contractors. No one understands solutions that business owners need better than other successful business owners.”
The logic is unassailable. And the results for Rosarium clients have been staggering.
- One client experienced a 95% uptick in unique website visitors in just one year. That led to a 970% increase in the time users spent on the client’s website.
- Rosarium streamlined Google Ads spending for another client, cutting costs 40% while also increasing impressions for their video campaigns by 300% and boosting the click-through rate by a whopping 34%.
- Another client grew so fast, they had to hire two new sales directors in a matter of months.
All that, and Rosarium is only celebrating its first anniversary in August 2023.
“It’s about solving, not selling,” Quintal said. “My team and I approach every situation looking for the friction that’s holding a client back from better brand awareness and healthy lead generation. Once we fix those problems, more qualified inquiries and sales conversions are right around the corner. Our secret is that we just focus on solutions as an extension of our client’s teams. We treat their businesses as if they’re our own. And we truly enjoy that.”
Beyond its commitment to clients, Rosarium is highly active in charity work and community engagement with the specific goal of celebrating and promoting cultural diversity and inclusion. Supporting the launch of a non-profit designed to create inclusiveness in the construction industry and sponsoring the 4th annual AfroCAN Juneteenth festival are just two accurate examples of Rosarium’s dedication to changing the world.
"Clients. Their businesses. The community. I love helping people grow,” Quintal said. “It’s been a really great first year. And it’s just the beginning. Wait ‘til you see what we do between now and our next anniversary!”
For more information, inquiries, or media opportunities, please contact [email protected].
###
Rosarium is a forward-thinking public relations & marketing collective. Created by Alexis Rose Quintal and based in Tampa, Florida, Rosarium offers a modern-day humanistic approach to amplifying the voices of entrepreneurs and businesses throughout the United States. Learn more by visiting rosarium.work or emailing [email protected].
Adam’s Grub Truck, a comfort-food truck that has been rolling around San Francisco, from SoMa SOMA StrEat Food Park to Spark Social to the Bayview, since 2011, has landed its own brick-and-mortar store where Valencia Subs closed earlier this month.
Adam Lee called the new location “everything that I’ve been hoping for,” and said his main goal is to make people happy with his culinary creations. His partner, April Boquiren, said she has been asking customers during their first week what else they want to see on the menu.
“In the little time that we’ve been here, it’s like, the culture is so diverse, and the people are so welcoming,” Boquiren said.
For now, they sell an enhanced version of their food truck menu: Louisiana-inspired dishes like shrimp po’boy sandwiches, Asian slaws and rice bowls, and carnival-inspired desserts, like funnel cake fries.
The new restaurant also stays open late — until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays — which Valencia Subs owner Frankie Lee said should help liven up the block. Lee, who coincidentally shares a surname with his successor at 1136 Valencia St., said he is looking forward to eating at the new restaurant.
Lee, who along with his sister also owns popular Irving Subs and Sunset Subs in the Sunset District, said he sold the location at the beginning of August after some time struggling to find reliable help at the Mission sandwich shop location, which he first opened in 2021.
“We’re running thin, we’re a family-owned business, and it was hard to manage from so far away,” Lee said.
Plus, Lee said, he’d hoped more people would be looking for jobs coming out of the pandemic, but that was not the case: When advertising a job opening, he’d receive a tiny fraction of the resumes that he used to get in 2019.
“We loved our experience there. It just sucks that we never could fully put all the time we wanted to there,” Lee said.
On the same block, Tinto has opened at 1152 Valencia St. between 22nd and 23rd streets, serving up wine where B3 once did. City records show that the wine bar is returning to the family that owns the building (after B3 closed, other restaurateurs operated Sugoi Sushi there until 2018).
In addition to wine, Tinto serves plates like prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and chicken wings, and hosts special events.
After a few years under the moniker Cafe Valencia, the local Brazilian eatery and grocery shop at 1252 Valencia St. rebranded as The Brazilian Spot last month. The shop, which sits between 22nd and 23rd streets, and has sold everything from acai bowls to Brazilian flip flops to money transfer services, has seen many owners over the years.
Its current owner, Miguel Do Rego, who took over with his partner almost a year ago, said he’s made some big changes to change the longtime shop’s reputation.
Most recently, that’s meant reflecting what’s in the store, on the outside.
Do Rego realized passersby would come inside and not realize the store was even Brazilian. Once they learned, they would call their friends and say, “I’m the Brazilian spot.” The name stuck.
“We did a pretty good job in bringing some identity to the place,” Do Rego said. In March, he brought in a Brazilian buffet and salad bar, and just this week he launched a popular Brazilian street food, crepe no palito (a crepe-on-a-stick).
The beer, wine, and pizza spot that opened on 24th Street in the peak of the pandemic in 2020 has closed, the SF Standard first reported.
“It is with a heavy heart to let you know we are closing down,” read a statement from owners Carly and Teddy Osmundson on the website. “We have loved every second of owning and operating Brewvino and are beyond grateful for your love and support.”
