Microsoft Search, News Ad Revenue Rose 23% In Q1

Microsoft reported Tuesday that first-quarter revenue rose 18% to nearly $49.4 billion, and net income grew 8% to reach $16.7 billion.

While strong results were attributed to its cloud platform -- up 29% -- Search and News advertising revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) paid to Bing Ads network publishers and news partners, rose 23% or $544 million.

Xbox hardware revenue rose 14%, with a 4% uptick for Xbox content and services.

“Continued customer commitment to our cloud platform and strong sales execution drove better than expected commercial bookings growth of 28% and Microsoft Cloud revenue of $23.4 billion, up 32% year over year,” stated Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. 

Microsoft reported that its personal computing business, including Windows and Xbox, rose 11% to $14.5 billion in fiscal Q3 -- the first quarter in the 2022 calendar year, and “Windows OEM revenue growth” rose 11%.

Xbox hardware revenue was up 14% with a 4% jump for Xbox content and services revenue, for an overall 6% boost to gaming revenue.

LinkedIn continues to experience dramatic growth, rising 34% this quarter.

Operating expenses increased $450 million or 17% driven by investments in Gaming, Search and News advertising, and Windows marketing.

Last week, Insider Intelligence released estimates for digital ad revenue share by company for 2022. The analyst firm estimates that Google will lead with 29% share in 2022, followed by Facebook at 21.4%, Alibaba at 71.1%, Amazon at 6.9%, YouTube at 2.9%, Tencent at 2.4%, Microsoft at 2.1%, Baidu at 1.7%, and LinkedIn at 1.1%.

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