Udemy Partners with Google Cloud as Inaugural Member of its New Cloud Endorsed Content Program

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Udemy (Nasdaq: UDMY), a leading online skills marketplace and learning platform, today announced a new partnership with Google Cloud, joining their new Google Cloud Endorsed Content Program. Through this program, Google Cloud will endorse high-quality Udemy content that current and aspiring cloud professionals can trust to learn more about Google Cloud emerging technologies such as generative AI and prepare for future certification exams. This new Google Cloud Endorsed Content adds to a growing portfolio of Google Cloud training available on Udemy. Additionally, select Udemy instructors will be invited to preview new products and features coming to Google Cloud, allowing them to provide learners with fresh, relevant content the moment a new capability becomes available. This supports Udemy’s commitment to ensuring its content is keeping pace with the rate of technology changes in the marketplace. These new courses will be easily identifiable via Google Cloud Endorsed badges and will be featured on Udemy’s dedicated, Google Cloud Endorsement page.

“Today, we’re at the forefront of the next digital revolution, and as a result, there’s a critical need for skilled professionals who are well-versed in tools like Google Cloud to help their organizations modernize and take full advantage of all that AI-powered cloud computing platforms have to offer,” said Greg Brown, President and CEO at Udemy. “We’re thrilled to be partnering with an iconic technology leader that’s been at the cutting edge of innovation for more than two decades, so that together, we can help train the next generation of cloud computing professionals.”

With demand for cloud computing skills on the rise, Udemy currently offers more than 430 dedicated Google Cloud courses with nearly 500,000 enrollments over the past 12 months. Additionally, as it is becoming an increasing priority for organizations and professionals to understand generative AI, Udemy has seen increased interest in the 124 Google Bard courses available on its platform with more than 73,000 course enrollments since its launch in March 2023. Further, in Udemy’s recently published 2024 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report, Google Cloud’s Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer certification was noted as one of the most in-demand technical skills for 2024 with a 1,454% growth in course consumption over the past year alone.

As companies increasingly prioritize adoption of skills-based practices, it is critical that they have access to the freshest content available to support certification preparation so professionals can not only acquire new skills, but also validate them and demonstrate mastery to their employers. Udemy’s learning platform does just that and also recently introduced an Integrated Skills Framework earlier this year which provides organizations with a roadmap to help them understand and more easily navigate the fundamental components of a skills-based approach to learning. This approach, coupled with endorsement by Google Cloud, provides learners and organizations with confidence that they are accessing the most current, high quality Google Cloud certification preparation available.

In the initial phase of the pilot program, Google Cloud will be focused on endorsing generative AI courses––beginning with courses from world-renowned Udemy instructors Jose Portilla and Ranga Karanam––with plans to review and endorse additional content related to Google Cloud certification preparation, data analytics, developer content and infrastructure and networking capabilities in the coming months.

“We are thrilled to announce Google Cloud Learning Services’ collaboration with Udemy to bring learners cutting-edge cloud computing and generative AI courses from industry experts like Jose Portilla and Ranga Karanam,” said Natalie Van Kleef, Head of the Current & Future Technologists organization in Google Cloud Learning Services. “This exciting partnership will empower developers to gain the skills and knowledge they need to become confident in these new technologies as generative AI continues to shape the future of work.”

To learn more about Google Cloud Endorsed Udemy courses, visit: business.udemy.com/google-endorsed-content/.

About UdemyUdemy (Nasdaq: UDMY) provides flexible and effective skill development and validation to empower organizations and individuals. The Udemy platform offers users thousands of up-to-date courses in dozens of languages, providing learners, real-world expert instructors and enterprises the solutions they need to collaborate, achieve goals and transform lives. Through the Udemy platform and community, millions of learners gain expertise in a wide range of topics, from programming and data science to leadership and team building. Udemy Business enables employers to offer on-demand learning for all employees, immersive learning for tech teams and cohort learning for leaders. Udemy Business customers include Fender®, Glassdoor, On24, The World Bank and Volkswagen. Udemy is headquartered in San Francisco with hubs in Ankara and Istanbul, Türkiye; Austin, Texas; Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Melbourne, Australia; and New Delhi, India.

Media Contact:Ellen D. KiehlDirector, Corporate Communicationspress@udemy.com

Investor Contact:Dennis WalshVice President, Investor Relationsdennis.walsh@udemy.com

Google: One of the Greatest Inventions in History

Equities, long-term investing

VP Content, Investing.com

Duke University, Interdisciplinary Center

Google (GOOGL) has long become an ultimate source of knowledge for everyone. Whatever questions are knocking around in people’s heads, their immediate impulse is to go to Google to get them answered. Even to understand why Google is so great, you need to google this question to learn more about the company. Before Google went public in 2004, people used to search for information differently: they flipped through encyclopaedias, read books and newspapers, asked professionals, or gathered gossip. Google reinvented the way we access information. We now receive answers from its search engine, exchange messages on Gmail, and store files on Google Drive.

Google’s innovations do not stop with YouTube, Google Books, or Google News. The company has recently stepped into the more distant territory of wearable tech, mobile operating systems, driverless vehicles, and renewable energy. As the scope of its interests grows, so does Google’s revenue. In the first quarter of 2022, Google’s revenue was $67.293 billion. In Q2, it reached $69.69 billion, which is up from around $62 billion earned in the same quarter a year prior. Google’s main revenue source is advertising through Google’s websites and its network, but there are also other platforms and businesses appearing under Alphabet that generate income. Continue reading to learn more about Google, discover more about the company’s uniqueness and comparative superiority over other tech giants.

Source: Statista 

Alphabet reported its 2023 third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, October 24, with EPS of $1.55, $0.10 better than the analyst estimate of $1.45. Revenue for the quarter came in at $76.69B versus the consensus estimate of $75.98B.

“Despite Alphabet topping quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, investors were disappointed by the relatively weak performance at its Google cloud platform, which is at risk of falling further behind Azure and AWS. Alphabet’s Google Cloud Platform sales growth came in below market expectations as customers cut back on cloud spending amid the current macro backdrop. Alphabet’s results prove it is not immune to the challenges facing the tech industry at large as it struggles in the face of ongoing macroeconomic headwinds, such as elevated inflation and worries about a possible recession. The results also demonstrated that it will take time for Alphabet to make money on its AI offerings.”

Jesse Cohen, senior analyst at Investing.com.

Alphabet reported its 2023 second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, July 25, with EPS of $1.44, $0.10 better than the analyst estimate of $1.34. Revenue for the quarter came in at $74.6B versus the consensus estimate of $72.82B.

Alphabet reported its 2023 first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, April 25, with EPS of $1.17, $0.09 better than the analyst estimate of $1.08. Revenue for the quarter came in at $69.8B versus the consensus estimate of $68.87B.

Alphabet reported its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, February 2, with EPS of $1.05, $0.13 worse than the analyst estimate of $1.18. Revenue for the quarter came in at $76.05B versus the consensus estimate of $76.07B.

Alphabet reported third-quarter earnings after the bell on Tuesday, October 25, missing analysts’ forecasts and with revenue falling short of expectations. The company announced earnings per share of $1.06 on revenue of $69.09, while analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $1.28 on revenue of $71.34B.

Larry Page 

Sergey Brin

Sources: Forbes 

In September 2022, Alphabet (Google) has a market cap of $1.415 trillion, according to companiesmarketcap.com. This makes the company the world’s fourth most valuable company by market cap. As the table below demonstrates, Google has consistently celebrated the increase in market cap over the years. The two notable exceptions visible on this upward line were 2018 when Google’s market cap edged 0.81% lower from the previous year and the current year, which so far has a decline of 27.15% from 2021. Alphabet hit a $1 trillion market capitalization in January 2020, becoming the fourth US company to pass the milestone after Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft.

Alphabet (Google) Market Cap History from 2014 to 2022

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According to the company’s latest financial report, Google’s current annual revenue is $278.13 billion, which constitutes growth of 8.33% from 2021, when the company earned $256.74 billion. The revenue for the quarter ending June 30, 2022, was $69.69 billion, a 12.61% increase year-over-year. Google’s revenue is largely constituted of advertising revenue, which amounted to $209.49 billion in 2021. Overall, Google’s annual revenue has been increasing over the years: in 2020, it was $181.69 billion, showing a 12.77% jump from 2109. In 2019, it was $160.74 billion, which constituted an 18.3% growth from 2018.

The table below reflects a general increase in Google’s annual revenue since 2014:

Alphabet (Google) Annual Revenue from 2014 to 2022 ($US billion)

More than 80% of Alphabet’s revenue is earned from Google ads, which generated $209.49 billion in 2021 and $146.92 in 2020. These high numbers are no surprise because Google has been the market leader in online advertising for over a decade. Google generates advertising revenue through its Google Ads platform. With its help, advertisers can display ads, product listings, and service offerings to people across Google’s ad network. As Google constantly improves its algorithms on the platform, more and more advertisers are drawn to it, pushing the company’s revenue higher.

Google’s total advertising revenue in the first quarter of 2022 jumped to $54.66 million, compared to $44.684 million in Q1 of 2021. According to Investing, in the second quarter of 2022, Alphabet reported revenue of $69.69 billion, 81% coming from Google’s ad business, being in line with the average expectation of $69.88 billion among investment researchers.

The fourth quarter of 2022 proved to be a disappointing exception from the general upward trend followed by the company for years. Google’s Q4 earnings report showed a drop in ad revenue, missing expectations because of challenges in the digital advertising market. Search, Google Network, and YouTube revenues slid in Q4 2022 by 3% to $59 billion.

Search advertising revenue fared better than other segments. It sank 1.6% to $42.6 billion compared to the same quarter in Q4 2021. Google Network and YouTube revenue retreated by 8.6% and 7.0%, respectively. Google Network earned $8.5 billion; in 2021, it brought in $9.3 billion. YouTube’s revenue plummeted to $8.0 billion from $8.6 billion earned in the previous year.

The growth of Google’s advertising revenue is shown in the table below:

Google Advertising Revenue ($US billion)

Sources: Statista, CNBC

Google Cloud, also referred to as Google Cloud Platform or GCP, provides computing resources for developing, deploying, and operating applications on the internet. It is largely a service for building and maintaining original applications. These applications may then be published via the Web from its hyper-scale data center facilities. Recently, Alphabet has heavily invested in Google Cloud intending to catch up with AWS and Microsoft Azure because in 2020, its share of worldwide cloud-related revenue, among the leading service providers, was only at around 9%. In 2021, Google’s incumbent CEO, Sundar Pichai, said: “We continue to invest strongly in the business, given the momentum we are seeing.”

Although the results have been mixed, with Google still commanding only 8% of the Cloud Service Market in 2022, GCP does show a steady increase in earnings every year. In the first quarter of 2022, the segment brought Alphabet $5.8 billion. In Q2, Google Cloud contributed $6.3 billion to the company’s revenue.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Google Cloud brought the company $7.32 billion. Although this figure showed an increase of 32% from the previous year, it still did not live up to analysts’ expectations. They foresaw $7.43 billion earned in this unit. Google Cloud also cut its losses in Q4, reducing them to $480 million from $890 million a year ago.

The increase in Google Cloud’s earnings is reflected in the table below:

Global Google Cloud Revenues from 2017 to 2022 ($US billion)

YouTube was launched in 2005 by three PayPal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. A year later, Google acquired the start-up for $1.65 billion. Now, this move is considered the smartest acquisition of the past two decades. YouTube presently hosts 51 million channels with millions of subscribers on every topic under the sun. After its inception, the platform started the YouTube Premium initiative to allow people to listen to YouTube music without interruption from ads. YouTube Premium reached 30 million subscribers in 2020. There are also live-streaming videos on YouTube, and Shorts, a shorter version of videos similar to the format used on the TikTok platform. Analysts deem the introduction of Shorts a smart decision: TikTok might be dwarfed by a much larger audience watching YouTube videos if YouTube short videos catch on. 

YouTube has reported more than 30% revenue growth in the past four years. It generated $28.8 billion in 2021, which constituted a 46.2% jump from 2020 figures. In the first quarter of 2022, YouTube brought Alphabet $6.869 billion. In the second quarter of 2022, the revenue earned from YouTube soared to $7.340 billion. YouTube brings such good profits and enjoys such extraordinary popularity worldwide that analysts from Venture Beat estimate that if it were separated from Alphabet, it would be worth between $140 and $300 billion.

As TikTok’s popularity grew, that of YouTube started waning because people preferred shorter videos. The results of the fourth quarter of 2022 bore out YouTube’s relative fall from grace. Its revenue dipped below analysts’ predictions to reach $7.96 billion. It decreased by 8% from $8.63 billion earned last year. In addition to cut-throat competition with TikTok, there was also a pullback in ad spending in 2022, which contributed to YouTube’s lesser popularity in the last two quarters of 2022.

Analysts’ outlook on YouTube’s performance is pessimistic. They fear a decline in ad revenue could prevent YouTube from reaching its target audience and rain on the parade of advertising campaigns, rendering them less effective. Receiving less money from advertising, Google could also decide to invest less in the innovation of YouTube and thus set it up to lose alongside other advertising platforms.

Observe the upward trajectory of YouTube’s annual revenue from 2010 to 2022 in the table below:

YouTube Annual Revenue from 2010 to 2022 ($US billion)

In 2022, YouTube welcomed 2.6 billion active users. A large number of users makes YouTube one of the most popular apps in the world, behind only Google and Facebook in total usage.  On average, people worldwide watch 5 billion videos per day, which amounts to 1 billion collective hours spent on YouTube. Individually, viewers spend about 14 minutes watching YouTube videos every day, although an average viewing session on mobile devices lasts longer, about 40 minutes. The growing popularity of the YouTube platform worldwide is demonstrated in the following table:

YouTube Annual Users (in billions)

In 2022, India emerged as the country whose citizens are fonder of YouTube than other people on the planet. Statista estimates that India has the largest YouTube audience: about 467 million viewers in the country click “Play” on this platform. The popularity of the social video platform is also wide in the United States. Around 247 million Americans engage with its content. Indonesia is ranked third, with 139 million people watching videos on YouTube.

See the popularity of YouTube presented by countries in descending order in the table below:

YouTube Audience’s Size by Countries as of January 2023 (in millions)

There is no denying that 2022 was less successful for Alphabet (Google) than previous years. Shares of the tech titan plummeted nearly 40%. Yet analysts observe that the company’s performance was not as disappointing as the market saw it. They maintain that accomplishing results similar to those seen in 2021 when the world was in lockdown and relied on Google more than usual was unrealistic in 2022. Comparing the company’s achievements to those of the previous year is unfair. Far from losing strength, Alphabet still has room to grow in the following year.

Google and YouTube faced new challenges in 2022. But throughout the year, the company actively worked on improving artificial intelligence supporting its search engine. Web searches on Google now can deliver even more relevant results and potentially turn Google into an even more effective marketing tool for advertisers. The company’s improvements in its search-oriented AI have upgraded Google’s shopping platform. Now it can suggest purchases to customers, help them visually immerse in a shopping process, and enhance their online shopping experience.

Alphabet also worked on improving its YouTube platform in 2022. Forced to compete with TikTok, whose brief content proved immensely popular, Alphabet introduced the monetization of shorter videos, called “shorts,” which were disallowed to generate revenue earlier. As people can now post more short videos preferred by viewers, they will attract more advertisers and lure the watching public away from the TikTok platform.

Other core improvements have been made in 2022 that will help Alphabet rise in 2023 and turn its performance into an unqualified success.

Google is not the only search engine existing in the world. There are such alternative platforms as DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo!, Baidu, and Yandex, but the majority of people in the world are not even aware of their existence. Or even if they know about Yahoo! and Bing, people still turn to Google when they are searching for something on the internet. After all, Google does have 92% of the search engine market share worldwide, alongside all these platforms.

The unpopularity of the alternative search engines eloquently testifies to Google’s power. Google has the capacity to calculate a website’s relevance according to the number of pages and links pointing back to the original site, which none of the others boast. This makes Google the preferred search engine in the world. Combined with the success of other companies united under the management of Alphabet, Google’s prospects seem upbeat, despite its stock’s present slight decline.

Although algorithm forecaster Wallet Investor predicts that GOOGL’s price will slide to $61.376 in 2024, analysts from AI Pickup see Alphabet stock rebounding in 2027 to $132.86 and $311.66 by 2030. But as Google is always focused on innovations, by the time we arrive at the end of the decade, the world might be transformed again by Google’s bright ideas, just as it was forever changed by its revolutionary invention of a search engine algorithm.

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Google, officials team up on cloud

Thailand is partnering with Google to facilitate governmental agencies using public cloud providers as part of the country's cloud-first policy.

The government also identified three public organisations to pioneer the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (AI), while the administration works to continue developing a cybersecurity framework and relevant skills to meet future digital needs.

Such moves should enable Thailand to capitalise on the AI economy by unlocking at least 2.6 trillion baht in economic benefits by 2030 if local organisations embrace AI innovation, creating high-value job opportunities and attracting foreign investment in technology, said speakers at Google's "Digital Samart Thailand" event yesterday.

"The partnership with Google will support the government's priorities under a national strategy to create high-value job opportunities and improve the quality of life for Thais, while reinforcing Thailand's position as a major destination for investment," said Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin.

The government and Google announced a strategic collaboration on Nov 14 at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Meeting, aiming to improve Thailand's digital competitiveness and AI innovation.

Mr Srettha said the government has accelerated three efforts aimed at strengthening the country's economy.

First, the "Go Cloud First" policy collaboration with Google incorporates the company's recommendations and international best practices, such as permitting the free flow of data with privacy and security protection via encryption keys, as well as defining types of data that may need to be stored in a fully air-gapped private cloud environment.

The Digital Economy and Society (DES) Ministry plans to expedite the implementation of this policy, with more details announced in the first quarter of 2024.

Google Cloud also announced a collaboration in the field of generative AI with the DES Ministry, the Transport Ministry and the Big Data Institute. Officials from the three organisations will receive hands-on training from Google Cloud engineers to identify high-impact use cases that can be addressed with generative AI, then use Vertex AI to build their own innovative solutions.

Through Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform, organisations can choose from more than 100 Google and open-source foundation models, create their own custom models using built-in tools and enterprise data, and integrate these custom models into their digital services to better serve stakeholders.

The second effort involves the government laying the groundwork for a new national cybersecurity framework facilitated by the National Cyber Security Committee.

Thirdly, the government is expected to take the lead in promoting generative AI adoption to improve productivity and the delivery of government services, with training and tools for officials provided by Google Cloud.

"The next era of Thailand's digital economy is driven by AI and cloud," said Mr Srettha.

Narit Therdsteerasukdi, secretary-general of the Board of Investment (BoI), told the Bangkok Post by the end of this year, the Energy Ministry is likely to launch a green utility tariff scheme, opening it for applications from organisations early next year.

"We received feedback from large players that have different needs and tariffs," Mr Narit said.

Moreover, the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has considered allowing cloud and data centre providers to purchase electricity from it directly.

Karan Bajwa, Google Cloud's vice-president for Asia-Pacific, said the company's research revealed at least 2.6 trillion baht in economic benefits could be unlocked by 2030 if local organisations embrace AI innovation.

He said AI is the "new electricity" that is critical to bring transformation at scale.

According to Access Partnership's latest "Economic Impact Report", Thailand is estimated to need 600,000 additional workers with advanced and intermediate digital skills by 2027 to support the growth of the digital economy. By narrowing the digital talent gap, digital skills training can add 1 trillion baht to the country's economy by 2030.

In October 2022, Google introduced Samart Skills, an exclusive Grow with Google programme for Thailand that aims to bridge the digital skills gap, helping to train workers for in-demand jobs. Since its inception, Google has trained 5,500 people with 85% of graduates reporting a positive career outcome within six months of graduating, such as a new job, promotion or a raise.

Google plans to provide an additional 12,000 Google Career Certificate scholarships to the BoI and DES Ministry through the end of 2024, bringing the total number of scholarships to 34,000. The company also added four new certificates in English for Cybersecurity, Advanced Data Analytics, Business Intelligence and IT Automation with Python, extending the total certificates on offer to nine.

Jackie Wang, country director of Google Thailand, said last year businesses in Thailand used Google's AI-powered products and solutions to unlock more than 150 billion baht in economic benefits.