統(tǒng)治業(yè)界20年之后,谷歌(Google)引以為豪的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)搜索業(yè)務(wù)會不會被人工智能取代?
周二收盤后,谷歌母公司Alphabet發(fā)布季度財報,向投資者提供可回答該問題的一手數(shù)據(jù)。過去幾個月,隨著生成式人工智能工具興起,尤其是谷歌競爭對手微軟(Microsoft)在必應搜索引擎中加大對人工智能的支持,所以不少人相當期待Alphabet此次公布的財報。
“就投資者對Alphabet的預期而言,可以說相當節(jié)制,因此本季度財報可能比較令人滿意,”Bernstein分析師馬克·舒姆里克表示。盡管如此,由于今年Alphabet股價已上漲約40%,確實存在下跌空間。
投資者關(guān)心的關(guān)鍵問題包括,Bing Chat和ChatGPT等對話式人工智能聊天機器人搶奪谷歌搜索用戶和廣告的情況如何,以及新競爭對谷歌內(nèi)部支出和利潤率的影響,尤其最近谷歌一直在努力削減成本,2023年初裁員12000多人。
“今年年初,人工智能市場尚未成為熱點,市場也剛開始分享關(guān)于利潤率擴張的評論,當時投資重點就已出現(xiàn)變化,”舒姆里克說。
華爾街分析師預計,Alphabet截至6月30日的季度收入預計為728億美元,同比增長4.5%,與去年同期收入增長13%相比明顯放緩。分析師預計本季度每股收益1.34美元。
Alphabet約80%收入來自在線廣告,谷歌搜索引擎廣告是公司最賺錢的服務(wù)之一。分析師和投資者擔心,類似Bing Chat的新型人工智能機器人可以直接回答用戶查詢,搶奪長期以來谷歌占據(jù)的賺錢產(chǎn)品,也會削弱谷歌搜索頁在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上流量重鎮(zhèn)的地位。
為應對挑戰(zhàn),谷歌發(fā)布了自家的人工智能搜索工具Google Bard。有報道稱,谷歌聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人謝爾蓋·布林已經(jīng)重返公司協(xié)助推進人工智能業(yè)務(wù),充分顯示該公司對人工智能危與機的重視態(tài)度。
周二Alphabet首席執(zhí)行官桑達爾·皮查伊主持電話會議時,投資者肯定會打探相關(guān)努力的更多細節(jié)。6月皮查伊曾經(jīng)表示,谷歌在人工智能領(lǐng)域的準備比十年前遭遇移動計算時要充分。
至于搜索市場狀況,存在各種各樣的信號,一些報告稱剛開始有關(guān)ChatGPT的興奮情緒已經(jīng)冷卻。到目前為止,谷歌搜索市場份額受到的影響不大。“只要涉及改變消費者行為,我總是非常懷疑,”Bernstein的舒姆里克說。
上個月有兩份研報調(diào)降了Alphabet股票評級,舒姆里克便是其中一份的作者。不過如今標準已降低,他發(fā)現(xiàn)該公司有潛力超過預期。
搜索收入是重中之重。人們希望看到從一季度開始連續(xù)增長。不過投資者也會十分關(guān)注搜索市場份額。
Alphabet受人工智能浪潮影響制定的支出計劃也會成為焦點。人工智能所需的專用服務(wù)器和芯片可能推高Alphabet的資本支出,尤其當前該公司正與微軟Azure和亞馬遜AWS等云提供商展開激烈競爭。
招聘人工智能人才也可能會推高運營費用。不過據(jù)巴克萊銀行(Barclays)分析,谷歌的強大地位可能帶來優(yōu)勢。巴克萊銀行稱,從員工與用戶比例和規(guī)模比例來看,谷歌的員工隊伍比Meta、TikTok和Snapchat效率更高。
“與其他公司相比,在交付新產(chǎn)品方面谷歌過去幾年不斷招徠工程師的舉動將迎來收獲,尤其在消費互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和軟件領(lǐng)域,不過最終要交由時間證明,”5月巴克萊銀行分析師羅斯·桑德勒在一份報告中寫道。(財富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:夏林
統(tǒng)治業(yè)界20年之后,谷歌(Google)引以為豪的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)搜索業(yè)務(wù)會不會被人工智能取代?
周二收盤后,谷歌母公司Alphabet發(fā)布季度財報,向投資者提供可回答該問題的一手數(shù)據(jù)。過去幾個月,隨著生成式人工智能工具興起,尤其是谷歌競爭對手微軟(Microsoft)在必應搜索引擎中加大對人工智能的支持,所以不少人相當期待Alphabet此次公布的財報。
“就投資者對Alphabet的預期而言,可以說相當節(jié)制,因此本季度財報可能比較令人滿意,”Bernstein分析師馬克·舒姆里克表示。盡管如此,由于今年Alphabet股價已上漲約40%,確實存在下跌空間。
投資者關(guān)心的關(guān)鍵問題包括,Bing Chat和ChatGPT等對話式人工智能聊天機器人搶奪谷歌搜索用戶和廣告的情況如何,以及新競爭對谷歌內(nèi)部支出和利潤率的影響,尤其最近谷歌一直在努力削減成本,2023年初裁員12000多人。
“今年年初,人工智能市場尚未成為熱點,市場也剛開始分享關(guān)于利潤率擴張的評論,當時投資重點就已出現(xiàn)變化,”舒姆里克說。
華爾街分析師預計,Alphabet截至6月30日的季度收入預計為728億美元,同比增長4.5%,與去年同期收入增長13%相比明顯放緩。分析師預計本季度每股收益1.34美元。
Alphabet約80%收入來自在線廣告,谷歌搜索引擎廣告是公司最賺錢的服務(wù)之一。分析師和投資者擔心,類似Bing Chat的新型人工智能機器人可以直接回答用戶查詢,搶奪長期以來谷歌占據(jù)的賺錢產(chǎn)品,也會削弱谷歌搜索頁在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上流量重鎮(zhèn)的地位。
為應對挑戰(zhàn),谷歌發(fā)布了自家的人工智能搜索工具Google Bard。有報道稱,谷歌聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人謝爾蓋·布林已經(jīng)重返公司協(xié)助推進人工智能業(yè)務(wù),充分顯示該公司對人工智能危與機的重視態(tài)度。
周二Alphabet首席執(zhí)行官桑達爾·皮查伊主持電話會議時,投資者肯定會打探相關(guān)努力的更多細節(jié)。6月皮查伊曾經(jīng)表示,谷歌在人工智能領(lǐng)域的準備比十年前遭遇移動計算時要充分。
至于搜索市場狀況,存在各種各樣的信號,一些報告稱剛開始有關(guān)ChatGPT的興奮情緒已經(jīng)冷卻。到目前為止,谷歌搜索市場份額受到的影響不大。“只要涉及改變消費者行為,我總是非常懷疑,”Bernstein的舒姆里克說。
上個月有兩份研報調(diào)降了Alphabet股票評級,舒姆里克便是其中一份的作者。不過如今標準已降低,他發(fā)現(xiàn)該公司有潛力超過預期。
搜索收入是重中之重。人們希望看到從一季度開始連續(xù)增長。不過投資者也會十分關(guān)注搜索市場份額。
Alphabet受人工智能浪潮影響制定的支出計劃也會成為焦點。人工智能所需的專用服務(wù)器和芯片可能推高Alphabet的資本支出,尤其當前該公司正與微軟Azure和亞馬遜AWS等云提供商展開激烈競爭。
招聘人工智能人才也可能會推高運營費用。不過據(jù)巴克萊銀行(Barclays)分析,谷歌的強大地位可能帶來優(yōu)勢。巴克萊銀行稱,從員工與用戶比例和規(guī)模比例來看,谷歌的員工隊伍比Meta、TikTok和Snapchat效率更高。
“與其他公司相比,在交付新產(chǎn)品方面谷歌過去幾年不斷招徠工程師的舉動將迎來收獲,尤其在消費互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和軟件領(lǐng)域,不過最終要交由時間證明,”5月巴克萊銀行分析師羅斯·桑德勒在一份報告中寫道。(財富中文網(wǎng))
譯者:夏林
After two decades of dominance, is Google’s vaunted internet search business about to be dethroned by A.I.?
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, will release its quarterly earnings report after Tuesday’s market close, providing investors with some of the first data to help answer the question. The rise of generative A.I. tools over the past several months, and Google rival Microsoft’s embrace of A.I. in its Bing search engine in particular, make this one of Alphabet’s most highly anticipated earnings reports in years.
Expectations are “far more moderate, in terms of what investors are expecting from Alphabet, so the quarter might actually set up pretty well for them,” said Bernstein analyst Mark Shmulik. Still, with Alphabet shares up roughly 40% so far this year, the stock has room to fall.
Among the key questions for investors are the extent to which conversational A.I. chatbots like Bing Chat and ChatGPT have stolen users and advertising from Google Search, and how the new competition has affected Google’s internal spending and profit margins, especially given Google’s recent efforts to cut costs, laying off more than 12,000 jobs in early 2023.
“When they originally shared the comments around margin expansion at the beginning of the year, that was prior to all this stuff happening around A.I., and so effectively, the investment priorities have changed,” Shmulik said.
Wall Street analysts expect Alphabet to report $72.8 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 30, which would represent a 4.5% increase year over year, and a notable slowdown from the same period last year, when Alphabet grew its top line by 13%. Analysts expected earnings per share of $1.34 for the quarter.
Alphabet generates roughly 80% of its revenue from online advertising, with the ads served up by Google’s search engine ranking among the company’s most lucrative services. Analysts and investors are worried that new A.I. bots, like Bing Chat, will cut into Google’s longtime moneymaker by answering users’ queries directly and making Google’s search page a less central destination on the internet.
Google has responded by releasing its own A.I. search tool, called Google Bard. And Google cofounder Sergey Brin has reportedly returned to the company to help with A.I. efforts, in a sign of how seriously the company views the opportunity and threat of A.I.
Investors will be looking for more details about these efforts when Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai leads the conference call on Tuesday. In June, Pichai said that Google was better positioned for A.I. than it was during the shift to mobile computing a decade ago.
There have been mixed signals about the state of the search market, with some reports suggesting that the initial excitement around ChatGPT has cooled off and that the impact on Google’s search market share has so far been modest. “Anything that requires consumer behavior to change I’m always very skeptical,” Bernstein’s Shmulik said.
Shmulik was behind one of the two reports that smacked Alphabet stock with downgrades last month, but now that the bar has been lowered he sees the potential for surpassing expectations.
Search revenue will be key—people will want to see sequential growth from the first quarter. But search market share is also on investors’ minds.
Alphabet’s spending plans as a result of the A.I. wave will also be in the spotlight. The specialized servers and chips required to power A.I. could potentially drive up Alphabet’s capital expenditures, particularly as competition remains fierce with cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS.
And the race to hire A.I. talent could push up operating expenses. According to [hotlink]Barclays,[/hotlink] however, Google’s deep ranks could give it an advantage. Barclays describes Google’s employee army as more efficient than that of Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat in an employee-to-user and scale ratio.
The hoarding of engineers that Google has conducted over the past few years will pay dividends, “in terms of shipping new products compared to other companies in consumer internet and software, but time will tell,” wrote Barclays analyst Ross Sandler in a May report.