Alphabet's 'other bets' are bringing in more money, but still cost tons

Alphabet reported its Q4 2016 earnings on Thursday, and the results were mixed: The company brought in more revenue than expected, but profits fell short, and its stock has taken a slight dip as a result.

The most interesting story at the company formerly known as Google is the fate of its "Other Bets" category - the projects that lie outside of the company's core businesses of Google search and advertising, like its Nest smart home products, Fiber internet service, and Verily life-sciences unit.

Alphabet has put these bets under increased scrutiny in the last year, and the thinning-down seems to have had an effect. On Thursday, Alphabet said the category made $262 million in revenue, a 74% increase from the year-ago quarter. Its operating loss was lower, too.

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However, as this chart from Statista shows, it's hard to call them successful. Though the other bets' losses have gone down recently, they still burned more than $3.6 billion over the course of 2016. Just in case there was any doubt, Alphabet is a search and advertising company through and through.

Statista