Q2, TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

The quarterly reports from the biggest of Big Tech are in, revealing which companies saw benefits from the coronavirus-related lockdowns. Apple, Amazon and Facebook beat expectations in the second quarter of the calendar 2020, while Google’s parent company saw its first-ever dip since going public.

Apple’s revenue was $59.7b, $13.2b of which came from the services division where Apple Music and iTunes are housed; the unit was up 15% over Q2 2019. CEO Tim Cook said video and music had set new records in revenue but did not provide specifics.

Amazon crushed expectations as revenues hit $88.9b, exceeding predictions by more than $7b. Subscription services, which includes revenue from Prime memberships, were up 29% year-over-year to $6.02b.

Alphabet, parent to Google and YouTube, fell 2% to $38.3b in revenue while in advertising revenue of $29.9b was down $2.6b to compared to Q2 2019. Facebook, however, saw an 11% growth from 2019 as it brought in $18.7b in Q2.