SAN FRANCISCO: Big Tech powerhouses Thursday delivered robust earnings reports for the latest quarter, leveraging the needs of pandemic-hit consumers amid heightened scrutiny of their economic power.
Amazon’s third-quarter profits tripled from a year ago to US$6.3 billion on strong retail sales during the pandemic and growth in cloud computing. Revenues jumped 37% to US$96 billion for the technology and retail colossus. But Saunders said growth was slower than in recent quarters as rivals ramped up competition and that “Amazon’s share of wallet dropped back a little.”Facebook’s profit jumped 29% to US$7.8 billion in the quarter as the social network saw a rebound in the online ad market despite an ad boycott over how it handles abusive content.
“Despite its challenges with election turmoil and content moderation, it remains a go-to for advertisers seeking to engage a broad base of consumers.” “None of the political machinations made any difference at all,” said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy. “We had a Facebook boycott and a lot of regulatory scrutiny about Google. Digital advertising is back.”