Google-owner Alphabet has unveiled strong first quarter results with profits leaping 73 per cent on the back of strong advertising sales.
The tech titan beat analyst expectations for both its top and bottom line causing its share price to spike by three per cent before finishing down by 0.33 per cent.
In the three months to 31 March Alphabet delivered profit of $9.4bn (£6.7bn), up from $5.4bn in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter jumped nearly 26 per cent to $31.1bn, up from $24.7bn.
Read more: Facebook prepares to reveal extent of data leak damage in results
Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said that the revenue growth “reflects our momentum globally”.
“We have a clear set of exciting opportunities ahead, and our strong growth enables us to invest in them with confidence,” she added.
Capital expenditure nearly tripled, hitting nearly $7.6bn, up from just $2.4bn in the same quarter last year.
Jim Cridlin, head of innovation at WPP-owned media company Mindshare, said that Alphabets growth was becoming increasingly expensive.
“Alphabets growth continues, but its getting more and more expensive for Alphabet to maintain that growth as total consumer acquisition costs this quarter continued their upward trend.”
Cridlin ascribed this to the reduced advertising space on smartphone screens, which he said are becoming the “dominant” method of accessing content.
Read more: The "big tech" backlash has yet to reach Wall Street
Social media giant Facebook is set to release its results for the quarter on Wednesday with analysts expecting Facebook to report its first quarter-on-quarter reduction in revenue since the beginning of 2017.
This comes in the wake of the scandal that followed the revelation that data firm Cambridge Analytica allegedly mined users' information without their knowledge to build its electoral models.
[contf] [contfnew] 
CityAM
[contfnewc] [contfnewc]
