Alphabet’s profit increased 36 percent to $20.64 billion in fourth quarter.

These days, there is so much uncertainty surrounding Google’s parent company, Alphabet: a global pandemic, fears of inflation gripping the U.S. economy, restive employees challenging management, and regulators and politicians seemingly bent on taking their pound of flesh.

But one thing has not changed. Alphabet continues to make money. Lots of it.

On Tuesday, Alphabet reported a 36 percent increase in profit, to $20.64 billion, in the last three months of 2021 on revenue of $75.32 billion, up 32 percent from a year earlier. The earnings were above analysts’ estimates of $19 billion in profit and $72.3 billion in revenue, according to data compiled by FactSet.

The strong results are a reminder of the underlying power of Google’s business and how, regardless of the circumstances surrounding it, the company will continue to thrive as long as people are active on the internet.

Google search remains the preferred on-ramp to the internet. YouTube is an essential online destination for entertainment, information and music. While lagging behind Amazon and Microsoft, Google is well positioned to capitalize on the seismic shift of businesses outsourcing technology infrastructure to the cloud.

With a firm foundation, Google has made slight tweaks to fortify its strongholds.

The company has made changes to how it allows retailers to list products in an effort to entice more users to start shopping searches on Google or YouTube. In a recent survey, Morgan Stanley found that the percentage of people starting shopping searches on Google and YouTube has increased since last May, while the percentage of Amazon Prime users starting searches on Amazon has decreased.

YouTube has introduced short — less than 60 seconds — videos to rival TikTok and appeal to a younger audience. Google Cloud continues to hire more sales staff as part of a push to expand into new industries and forge partnerships.