Working from home | Google saves $1 billion a year, plans to implement hybrid model: Report

Google is saving more than $1 billion annually by working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bloomberg reported.

During the first quarter of 2021, Google's parent company Alphabet said it saved $268 million in expenses from company promotions, travel and entertainment, compared with the same quarter last year, "primarily as a result of COVID-19."

The business news website reported that this potentially translates to $1 billion a year. Alphabet's marketing and administrative costs were effectively flat

Many Google employees have not been travelling much for work and mostly been working from home. The perks for the staff, such as massage tables, catered cuisine and corporate retreats, have been missing since the pandemic began in March 2020, Bloomberg reported.

In its annual report for 2020, Alphabet said advertising and promotional expenses had dropped by $1.4 billion in 2020 due to a cut in spending, paused or rescheduled campaigns, and modified some events to digital-only formats.