Alphabet lost $3.6 billion experimenting with non-Google projects this year

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It was an expensive loss.
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Google makes bank. Alphabet's other projects? Not so much. In the most recent fiscal year, Alphabet lost $3.6 billion on its "Other Bets," the hilariously demeaning term it uses to refer to its non-Google business divisions — like X, which develops balloon-powered internet access and drone delivery. That's double what the Bets lost the year before, Bloomberg reports. Google's ad business, meanwhile, brought in $76.1 billion — some 89 percent of Alphabet's total revenue.

"No one wants to face the reality that this is an advertising company with a bunch of hobbies," said one ex-Google executive.

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Kelly Gonsalves
Kelly Gonsalves

Kelly Gonsalves is a sex and culture writer exploring love, lust, identity, and feminism. Her work has appeared at Bustle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and more, and she previously worked as an associate editor for The Week. She's obsessed with badass ladies doing badass things, wellness movements, and very bad rom-coms.