The announcement came as parent company Alphabet reported gloomy fourth-quarter financial results.
Alphabet’s profit fell by more than a third as the wider ad market contracted over broad economic concerns.
Alphabet’s profit fell 34%compared to last year’s results.
“We are going to be bold, responsible and focused,” Pichai said.
“A healthy disregard for the impossible has been core to our company culture from the very beginning.”
No part of Google’s ad business was untouched.
“Google closed the year in a very different place than it was in this time last year.
Google’s stockfell 4% in after-hours trading, to $104per share.
The company is clearly concerned about the economic climate.
Employee pay is a major factor in expenses.
Alphabet employment increased from 156,500 in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 190,234 in 2022.
Porat said Google will slow the rate of hiring in 2023.
Though Google has thrived financially for years from search and other ads, it faces new competitive challenges.
It’s alsointegrated more short-form videos into search results.
Google also faces aJustice Department that is suing the search giant over its dominance in online advertising.
Google pointed to legal spending as a notable factor in its increased expenses.
The companycut 15% of its workforcefrom its life sciences arm, Verily, in January.
He aimed to crowdsource ideas from staff to help streamline Google’s processes.
With economic and inflation concerns, Big Tech has cut jobs.
Even with these layoffs, many such companies arebigger than they were before the pandemic.
