When Google was founded in 1998 as a project by two students. 20 years later, Alphabet which is the parent company of Google, reported that it topped $100 billion in annual sales.
This is the first time in Google's 20-year history.
The company posted $32.3 billion in sales for the fourth quarter of 2017, pushing its total annual revenue to pass $110 billion. This is an increase up 24 percent from $90 billion in Q4 2016
The milestone shows the strength of Google's ad sales business, which continues to grow even as the company faces controversies over Russian-bought election ads and offensive videos on YouTube.
Both Google and YouTube control more than 60 percent of the world's digital ad spending in the U.S., and estimates suggest that the figure will continue to grow.
While Alphabet's revenue remains healthy, the company experienced a rare loss: $9.9 billion "due to the one-time transition tax on accumulated foreign subsidiary earnings and deferred tax impacts."
As a result net income was $3 billion less for this quarter, and misses Wall Street's expectation.
Alphabet's stock fell as much as 5 percent in after-hour trading due to earnings per share of $9.70 versus an estimated $9.98. For comparison, Alphabet reported $27.72 billion in revenue and $6.73 billion in net income in the previous quarter.
However, Google’s traffic acquisition grew from 22 percent to 24 percent on its advertising revenue year-over-year. This was they key that pleased investors. And YouTube, despite receiving criticisms, was still a key contributor to Google advertising revenue.
In a statement, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said that "full year operating income growth continues to underscore our core strength, and on top of this, we continue to make substantial investments for the long-term in exciting new businesses."
The company also announced that John Hennessy, a longtime member of the board, is becoming Alphabet's chairman, replacing Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO, who announced plans to step down as chairman back in December 2017.
