Google ad revenue rises to US$26.6bn, Alphabet's APAC revenue grows by 33%

Google has seen a 24% increase in advertising revenue to US$26.6billion in Q1 2018, up from US$21.4billion in Q1 2017. Meanwhile, Google parent company Alphabet saw a 33% year-on-year (YOY) growth in APAC revenue at US$4.8 billion, while EMEA revenue was at US$10.3 billion.Alphabet also incurred around US$3.6 billion in sales and marketing costs in the three months ending 2018, up from US$2.6 billion in 2017. Overall, Alphabet saw a rise 26% YOY rise in revenue to US$31.1 billion.The report added that paid clicks on Google properties also increased 59% YOY while cost-per-click on Google properties fell 19%. Cost-per-impression on Google Network Members' properties also saw an 18% rise YOY. Total traffic acquisition costs amounted to US$4.6billion, 22% of which were from Google advertising revenues."Our ongoing strong revenue growth reflects our momentum globally, up 26% versus the first quarter of 2017 and 23% on a constant currency basis to US$31.1 billion. We have a clear set of exciting opportunities ahead, and our strong growth enables us to invest in them with confidence," Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet and Google, said.In March this year, Google said it removed over 3.2 billion ads that violated its advertising policies last year, which is equivalent to more than 100 bad ads per second. According to the company, this allowed it to block “majority of” bad ad experiences, such as malvertising and phishing scams, before they impact people. In February, Google revealed that Chrome will remove ads from websites that do not adhere to the “Better Ads Standards” developed by the Coalition for Better Ads for desktop and mobile web.But most recently, P&G announced that it is finally making its return to Google-owned video platform YouTube, after staying away from the platform for over a year. This was due to concerns regarding ad placements ahead of inappropriate content.  P&G is however, far more selective this time around and only plans to advertise on videos which it has reviewed and approved off. The ads will run ahead of content fewer than 10,000 YouTube channels, a massive slash from the 3 million YouTube channels it used to advertise on.Closer to home, Google tied up with Singapore Press Holdings deliver news through Google Home devices via commands such as “Okay Google, listen to news from The Straits Times” or “Hey Google, play me the news from The Business Times.”