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Google CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed that the company’s personal cloud subscription, Google One, is fast approaching the milestone of 100 million subscribers.
In a recent announcement during the company’s Q4 and fiscal year 2023 earnings call, Pichai discussed the way that Google One has evolved since it was first introduced in 2018. Its most recent additions include enhanced editing features for Google Photos and dark web monitoring, which add to the existing features such as a VPN connection family sharing, and the all-important core product: cloud storage.
Overall, Pichai highlighted that Google’s subscription business, which entails Google One and other products like YouTube Premium, accounted for $15 billion in revenue last year, a five-fold increase since 2019.
Google sees a good year for cloud and subscriptions
Reflecting on the previous twelve months, Pichai confirmed that the company’s significant investments in artificial intelligence have helped to drive cloud revenue.
The announcement also shed some light on Google’s recent restructuring, including the layoffs of around 1,000 workers across various divisions in January 2024, with Pichai hinting at more cuts to come.
Pichai alluded to the success of Gemini AI in Ad Campaigns, which has helped boost efficiency for advertisers, however sceptics have suggested that the generative AI tool could been a driving cause behind job losses in the company’s ad business. Google affirms that the changes are nothing more than a typical annual process.
Moreover, Google posted a revenue of $307 billion in 2023, marking a 9% increase over the $282 billion recorded in 2022. Its fourth quarter also saw a notable increase of 13% compared with Q4 2022.
Speaking of the results, Pichai summarized: “We are pleased with the ongoing strength in Search and the growing contribution from YouTube and Cloud. Each of these is already benefiting from our AI investments and innovation. As we enter the Gemini era, the best is yet to come.”