Google suffers first revenue decline as ads hit by pandemic

Enlarge / Google logo seen during Google Developer Days (GDD) in Shanghai, China, September 2019. (credit: Lyu Liang | VCG | Getty Images)

Google has suffered its first recorded revenue decline, as the coronavirus crisis wiped 8 percent from advertising income in the latest quarter and depressed parent company Alphabet's revenues by 2 percent from the year before.

Despite the unprecedented fall-off in its core business, however, Google executives said conditions had improved as the quarter progressed, and offered cautious optimism for a return to growth in the current period.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive, said Google had seen the early signs of stabilization, as users returned to commercial activity online."

Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments