As Google’s Cloud business turned profitable for the first time on record, the company launched a Google Web3 startups program offering technical tools and cloud services to companies looking to scale in the Web3 space.
For quite some period, tech giant Google was making heavy investments in its Cloud computing business in order to compete with giants like Amazon and Microsoft. It seems that the investments are paying off as Google’s Cloud business turns profitable for the very first time on record.
On Tuesday, April 25, parent company Alphabet made the announcement adding that the Google Cloud business is profitable for the first time in three years. This division generated $191 million in operating income on $7.45 billion in revenue during the first quarter. During the same quarter the last year, the company reported a $706 million loss on $5.82 billion in revenue.
Alphabet’s cloud business includes the Google Cloud platform along with Google Workspace productivity software subscriptions. The Google Cloud platform provides cloud infrastructure while servicing companies that prefer to build atop it and run their own applications. Together, this business accounts for 10% of Alphabet’s total revenue. Some of the big clients of Google Cloud include PayPal, Major League Baseball, Deutsche Bank, and UPS.
Currently, Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominate the cloud space with Microsoft being the second-largest service provider. Alphabet started disclosing its cloud revenue back in 2020, and started offering further information on its operating losses since 2021. In its filing to the US SEC on Tuesday, Alphabet noted:
“Certain costs associated with corporate initiatives supporting consumer-facing activities, previously reflected in unallocated corporate costs, are now allocated to Google Services, are now allocated based on an updated measure of the relative benefit derived from the services. As a result of these changes, more of the previously unallocated corporate costs are allocated to our segments, and more of certain previously allocated costs are allocated to our consumer-facing Google Services products and less to Google Cloud enterprise products.”
Google Cloud’s Web3 Startup Program
In another development, Google Cloud has also launched its new Web3 startup program with the goal of offering technical tools and cloud services to firms that are looking to scale. Speaking on the development, James Tromans, Head of Web3 Engineering at Google Cloud said:
“Our goal is to enable Web3 builders with reliable, scalable, and sustainable infrastructure on which to build their applications. We want to make Google Cloud the first choice for every Web3 startup and developer to help launch and scale their business”.
The Google Cloud Web3 startup program will feature credits offered to startups along with some added benefits such as access to some major blockchain events.
Additionally, startups that are part of the program get additional benefits such as access to Google Cloud Web3 product and engineering teams, training courses, as well as grants from Google Cloud’s foundation partners such as the Solana Foundation, Aptos, Flow, Celo, Near, and HBAR Foundation.
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