Google's competition for advertising heats up from Amazon, rival platforms

Alphabet's Google, the largest U.S. digital advertising platform, is facing increased competition from sites where people purchase products and places thought to be safe from potentially offensive content, advertising buyers say.

Alphabet’s shares fell 7.5% on Tuesday, a day after the company reported its slowest quarterly revenue growth in three years. About 85% of the company’s revenue comes from Google’s ad business.

Google’s massive size, which still had revenue of $36.3 billion in the first quarter, means that growth must slow as global digital ad budgets and international economies have also slowed.

Amazon’s ad business, which is combined in an “advertising and other sales” segment, brought in $2.7 billion in the first quarter, less than one-tenth of Google’s ad sales.

Google’s streaming video platform YouTube has also struggled to stop the spread of disturbing or adult content on the site, prompting some major advertisers including AT&T Inc to remove its ads for fear they could appear next to offensive content.

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