San Francisco - USA
San Francisco, Oct 29, 2024 (AFP) -Google's parent company Alphabet reported robust third-quarter results on Tuesday, with revenue climbing 15 percent year-over-year to $88.3 billion, powered by strong performance from its crucial advertising business and growth in cloud services.
The technology giant's net income surged 34 percent to $26.3 billion, while earnings per share increased 37 percent to $2.12.
Operating margins expanded significantly, rising 4.5 percentage points to 32 percent, reflecting improved cost efficiency at one of the world's biggest companies.
"Our commitment to innovation, as well as our long-term focus and investment in AI, are paying off with consumers and partners benefiting from our AI tools," said CEO Sundar Pichai, referring to the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence.
The results showed that Google is holding its own despite worry that the search engine juggernaut has been caught short in the AI race.
Google also faces increasing pressure as its world-dominating search engine competes for ads with a widening array of platforms, including Meta, Amazon, Apple, TikTok and even streamers such as Netflix.
But Emarketer senior analyst Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf said Google proved that its defense "is locked in, and it heads into the holiday season well-positioned to win ad budgets."
The company also satisfied questions about whether its search engine will withstand the growing popularity of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT, which can answer many queries directly in lieu of an internet search.
In response to these pressures, Google earlier this month reshuffled its search engine business, replacing the division chief after a four-year tenure.
The company also moved its Gemini chatbot team to Google DeepMind, separating it from the search group.
Pichai said that Google Search's AI Overviews, which display a snapshot of information at the top of the results page, was proving a success and available to one billion users in more than 100 countries.
"We are definitely expanding what's possible in search and it's been really heartening to see users adapt," Pichai told analysts.
Google Cloud emerged as a standout performer in the June-to-September period, with revenue jumping 35 percent to $11.4 billion, driven by increased adoption of AI infrastructure and solutions.
That business, which trails market leaders Amazon and Microsoft, provides businesses with computing power, data storage and AI tools delivered over the internet.
The company's core Google Services segment, which includes Search, YouTube, and other advertising products, grew 13 percent to $76.5 billion.
YouTube hit a significant milestone, with total advertising and subscription revenues exceeding $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.
After the release, investors sent Google's share price higher by five percent in after-hours trading.
Despite the solid earnings, Google faces significant legal challenges, at least in the long-term.
In August, a federal judge found that Google's search engine was an illegal monopoly, with the US government suggesting a company breakup might be appropriate.
A separate antitrust lawsuit challenges its dominance of online advertising.
Additionally, Google has been ordered to open Android-powered smartphones to rival app shops following a case brought by Fortnite-maker Epic Games, though that decision has been suspended pending appeal.
While those legal battles are expected to take years to resolve, they have raised questions about the company's long-term strategy and its heavy reliance on search engine advertising revenue.
Google reports strong growth driven by AI, cloud
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Google reports strong growth driven by AI, cloud
Indonesian boy’s ‘aura farming’ dance brings global spotlight to centuries-old tradition
- Pacu jalur is a boat tradition from Indonesia’s Riau province that can be traced back to the 17th century
- Dika was named tourism ambassador of his home province after going viral with his dance moves
JAKARTA: An Indonesian boy dancing on the front of a boat has become an Internet sensation in recent weeks, setting a global trend of “aura farming” that has been recreated by famous athletes and thousands of others worldwide.
“Aura farming” is an Internet expression popularized in 2024, largely in reference to anime characters and celebrities. It refers to the act of consistently looking cool to build one’s “aura.”
Dressed in a black traditional costume and wearing sunglasses, 11-year-old Rayyan Arkhan Dikha from Indonesia’s Riau province has been dubbed “the ultimate aura farmer” on social media for performing a series of repetitive movements calmly on the bow of a thin boat, videos of which have amassed millions of views globally.
The Indonesian boy who goes by the name of Dika was participating in a local event known as “pacu jalur,” which roughly translates to “boat race.” A tradition that dates back to the early 17th century, the event is now held every August to commemorate the Indonesian Independence Day.
“Pacu jalur has been one of Indonesia’s Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2015,” Indonesia’s Culture Minister Fadli Zon said in a statement, after hosting Dika in his office in Jakarta on Wednesday.
The water sport tradition originated in Riau’s Kuantan Singingi regency at a time when boats were the main mode of transportation for the communities living along the local river.
“It has always been a part of life for people in (Kuantan Singingi), including to celebrate the most important Islamic holidays and also our independence day,” Fadli said.
During the race, each of the long, canoe-like boats and its large crew has an “anak coki,” a dancer who moves with rhythmic hand movements and body waves to provide inspiration for the rowers.
While every anak coki brings their own charm to the race, Dika — who has participated in the races since he was 9 — has since become the face of the pacu jalur tradition.
Though the original clip featuring Dika was posted to TikTok in January by a user named Lensa Rams and the event itself was held last August, the boy shot to global popularity over the past few weeks, as various creators on Instagram and TikTok have tried their own hand at Dika’s dance.
The list includes soccer team Paris Saint-Germain and Travis Kelce, American football star and boyfriend of pop singer Taylor Swift. When the US men’s national soccer team won against Guatemala last week, American soccer player Diego Luna copied Dika’s moves to celebrate a goal.
The massive impact of the video garnered him special attention from the government in Riau, where the governor on Tuesday named Dika as a tourism ambassador for the province and awarded him a scholarship for 20 million rupiah (about $1,200) for his education.
“Today, almost everyone opened their eyes to the vibrant and thriving culture of Riau, especially pacu jalur. This is why I wanted to show my appreciation to Dika,” Governor Abdul Wahid said.
In a statement, the local government confirmed that Dika will participate in the races next month.
Speaking to reporters in Jakarta following his meeting with the culture minister, Dika said: “I’m happy that I’ve gone viral globally.”
Israeli journalist arrested over post praising death of 5 IDF soldiers in Gaza
- Israel Frey, who frequently posts his criticism of the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza, is being held in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court
- The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Frey’s arrest
LONDON: An Israeli court on Thursday extended the detention of journalist Israel Frey over a post on X that hailed “the world is a better place” following the death of five soldiers in an explosion in Gaza.
Frey, who frequently posts his criticism of the Israeli army’s actions in Gaza, is being held in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court over charges of inciting and supporting terrorism.
“The world is better this morning without five young people who participated in one of the cruelest crimes against humanity,” the Israeli journalist said, referring to five Israeli soldiers who were killed by an explosive device during their fight with the militant group Hamas in northern Gaza earlier this week.
He added: “Sadly, for the boy in Gaza now being operated on without anesthesia, the girl starving to death and the family huddling in a tent under bombardment — this is not enough.
“This is a call to every Israeli mother: Do not be the next to receive your son in a coffin as a war criminal. Refuse.”
Frey was previously questioned over his critical posts in the past. In March, he was interrogated on suspicion of inciting terrorism over several pro-Palestinian posts.
“A Palestinian who hurts an IDF soldier or a settler in the apartheid territories is not a terrorist. And it’s not a terror attack. He’s a hero fighting against an occupier for justice, liberation and freedom,” he once wrote.
In December 2022, he was questioned over posts in which he said that “targeting security forces is not terrorism” and called a Palestinian who was planning an attack a “hero.”
Frey fled into hiding on Oct. 16, 2023, about a week into the Gaza war, after his home was attacked by a far-right Israeli mob when he expressed solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
On Thursday, he told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he will not be “bowing his head” to his persecution, adding that “we have already caused enough suffering, blood and tears. Liberate Gaza. Enough.”
According to Israeli media reports, Judge Ravit Peleg Bar Dayan ruled that Frey’s remarks “offend public sensibilities and are deeply disturbing,” asking, “How can the deaths of young soldiers, who fell in the line of duty defending their homeland, possibly be considered good?”
She added that extending Frey’s detention was necessary due to “investigative actions susceptible to obstruction,” as she denied bail to Frey.
In a statement, the Committee to Protect Journalists condemned Frey’s arrest and said his detention “underscores authorities’ growing intolerance of freedom of expression since the start of the war on October 7, 2023.”
CPJ Regional Director Sara Qudah called for Frey’s immediate release along with “all detained Palestinian journalists” and for an end to the “ongoing crackdown on the press and dissenting voices.”
Pakistani father kills daughter over TikTok account: police
- TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels
- Pakistani women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in the country
RAWALPINDI: Pakistan police on Friday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her account on popular video-sharing app TikTok.
In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces.
“The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said.
According to a police report shared with AFP, investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor.” He was subsequently arrested.
The victim’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” according to police in the city of Rawalpindi, where the attack happened, next to the capital Islamabad.
Last month, a 17-year-old girl and TikTok influencer with hundreds of thousands of online followers was killed at home by a man whose advances she had refused.
Sana Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media accounts including TikTok, where she shared videos of her favorite cafes, skincare products, and traditional outfits.
TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels.
Women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy.
However, only 30 percent of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58 percent), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025.
Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what it calls “immoral behavior,” amid backlash against LGBTQ and sexual content.
In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her “honor.”
Iran says 12 journalists killed in Israeli strikes during war
- The organization accused Israel of deliberately targeting media infrastructure
TEHRAN: Iran said Thursday that at least a dozen journalists and media workers were killed in Israeli strikes during the two countries’ recent war, according to state media.
The media arm of the Basij paramilitary forces — a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — said the death toll among media workers had risen to 12 following the identification of two additional individuals, the IRNA news agency reported.
The organization accused Israel of deliberately targeting media infrastructure “to silence the voice of truth” and suppress the “media of the Resistance Front” — a reference to Iran and allied groups opposed to Israel.
The announcement comes as casualty figures from the war have continued to rise, even after the end of the 12-day conflict, which began on June 13 with a surprise Israeli attack and saw an unprecedented bombing campaign that hit Iranian military facilities, nuclear sites and residential areas.
During the conflict, Israel also attacked the Iranian state broadcasting service in northern Tehran.
The Israeli campaign killed senior military commanders, nuclear scientists and hundreds of civilians, with the total death toll currently at 1,060, according to Iranian officials.
Retaliatory Iranian drone and missile barrages killed at least 28 people in Israel during the war, according to official figures.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino resigns after two years at the helm of Elon Musk’s social media platform
- Yaccarino announced her resignation in a post, saying “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter”
- Elon Musk hired Yaccarino, a veteran ad executive, in May 2023 after buying Twitter for $44 billion
X CEO Linda Yaccarino said she’s stepping down after two bumpy years running Elon Musk’s social media platform.
Yaccarino posted a positive message Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok. She did not say why she is leaving.
Musk responded to Yaccarino’s announcement with his own 5-word statement on X: “Thank you for your contributions.”
“The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner,” said Forrester research director Mike Proulx. “It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company’s chief executive.”
In reality, Proulx added, Musk “is and always has been at the helm of X. And that made Linda X’s CEO in title only, which is a very tough position to be in, especially for someone of Linda’s talents.”
Musk hired Yaccarino, a veteran ad executive, in May 2023 after buying Twitter for $44 billion in late 2022 and cutting most of its staff. He said at the time that Yaccarino’s role would be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology. Before announcing her hiring, Musk said whoever took over as the company’s CEO ” must like pain a lot.”
In accepting the job, Yaccarino was taking on the challenge of getting big brands back to advertising on the social media platform after months of upheaval following Musk’s takeover. She also had to work in a supporting role to Musk’s outsized persona on and off of X as he loosened content moderation rules in the name of free speech and restored accounts previously banned by the social media platform.
“Being the CEO of X was always going to be a tough job, and Yaccarino lasted in the role longer than many expected. Faced with a mercurial owner who never fully stepped away from the helm and continued to use the platform as his personal megaphone, Yaccarino had to try to run the business while also regularly putting out fires,” said Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg.
Yaccarino’s future at X became unclear earlier this year after Musk merged the social media platform with his artificial intelligence company, xAI. And the advertising issues have not subsided. Since Musk’s takeover, a number of companies had pulled back on ad spending — the platform’s chief source of revenue — over concerns that Musk’s thinning of content restrictions was enabling hateful and toxic speech to flourish.
Most recently, an update to Grok led to a flood of antisemitic commentary from the chatbot this week that included praise of Adolf Hitler.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” the Grok account posted on X early Wednesday, without being more specific.
Some experts have tied Grok’s behavior to Musk’s deliberate efforts to mold Grok as an alternative to chatbots he considers too “woke,” such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. In late June, he invited X users to help train the chatbot on their commentary in a way that invited a flood of racist responses and conspiracy theories.
“Please reply to this post with divisive facts for @Grok training,” Musk said in the June 21 post. “By this I mean things that are politically incorrect, but nonetheless factually true.”
A similar instruction was later baked into Grok’s “prompts” that instruct it on how to respond, which told the chatbot to “not shy away from making claims which are politically incorrect, as long as they are well substantiated.” That part of the instructions was later deleted.
“To me, this has all the fingerprints of Elon’s involvement,” said Talia Ringer, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Yaccarino has not publicly commented on the latest hate speech controversy. She has, at times, ardently defended Musk’s approach, including in a lawsuit against liberal advocacy group Media Matters for America over a report that claimed leading advertisers’ posts on X were appearing alongside neo-Nazi and white nationalist content. The report led some advertisers to pause their activity on X.
A federal judge last year dismissed X’s lawsuit against another nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which has documented the increase in hate speech on the site since it was acquired by Musk.
X is also in an ongoing legal dispute with major advertisers — including CVS, Mars, Lego, Nestle, Shell and Tyson Foods — over what it has alleged was a “massive advertiser boycott” that deprived the company of billions of dollars in revenue and violated antitrust laws.
Enberg said that, “to a degree, Yaccarino accomplished what she was hired to do.” Emarketer expects X’s ad business to return to growth in 2025 after more than halving between 2022 and 2023 following Musk’s takeover.
But, she added, “the reasons for X’s ad recovery are complicated, and Yaccarino was unable to restore the platform’s reputation among advertisers.”
Analysts have said that some advertisers may have returned to X to avoid alienating Trump supporters during the height of Musk’s affiliation with the president and his base. Legal threats may have also played a part — whether from X or from the Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating Media Matters over its reporting that hateful content has increased on X since Musk took over, resulting in an advertiser exodus. Media Matters has in turn sued the FTC, claiming it seeks to punish protected speech.
