Factors that Are Driving Up Alphabet’s Expenses

A combination of investments in creating new products and spending on the marketing of those products is driving up costs at Alphabet (GOOGL). Its management cautioned during its second-quarter earnings call that expenses are expected to keep rising in the balance of the year. Among Alphabet’s cost items, traffic acquisition cost has been getting a lot of attention lately. For its advertising business, Alphabet favors the shift to mobile, which also means spending more on traffic acquisition.