Google, as well as other large tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple, has seen massive growth in its quarterly sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The companies credit the increased amount of time that people have had to spend at home because of multiple lockdowns for their increase in sales – the internet and electronic devices have been one of the main ways for people to stay in contact with one another and keep themselves up to date on developments within the pandemic. Digitalisation has only increased in speed with global lockdowns, and it seems unlikely that all of this will be reversed as the world returns to normal.

In the second quarter of 2021, Google’s parent company Alphabet reported a massive 62% increase on the same quarter in 2020, with a total revenue of £44.5 billion. The majority of this revenue has come from Google’s advertising, which gave the company $50.4 billion – a 70% increase on pre-pandemic figures. This has also driven up stock prices and profits for the company; earnings per share had been estimated at $19.30 each, but at their peak reached $27.26.

Google is not alone in this massive growth. Apple experienced the best fiscal quarter the company has had since its foundation, and Microsoft saw a 21% rise in revenue between the same quarters in 2020 and 2021. These growths have been fuelled at least in part by a huge increase in demand for technology, caused by the shift to remote work and study caused by lockdowns. The three companies now together have a combined market value of $6.4 trillion, which is more than twice their collective value in 2020.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk