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Google announces Q1 figures

In announcing its financial results for the first quarter of 2008, Google has delivered a resounding confirmation that it remains largely unaffected by the present economic downturn in America.

Google’s financial results for the first quarter of 2008 have surpassed all expectations. The search engine is reporting a Q1 turnover of 5.19 million US dollars, representing a 42 per cent increase on the first quarter of 2007, and a net profit of 1.3 million dollars (+30%).

Two-thirds of all revenue has been generated by the AdWords banners which appear on Google’s own pages and on other sites that it owns, such as YouTube. The balance of its income derives from AdSense contextual links, a service that Yahoo is current trialling in order to deliver relevant Google ads alongside its own natural search results.

Today Google employs over 19,000 staff around the world, some 2351 more than last year. The group is maintaining that its acquisition of DoubleClick, an online advertising company for 3.1 million dollars, had no adverse affect on its activity. However, the firm has made 300 people redundant in this new division, representing 10 per cent of its employees.

Overall these results indicate that, unlike other companies in its sector, Google has not suffered from the current economic downturn. Some of the Indian service giants, for example, have seen their activity levels drop over the first 3 months of this year.

One reason that Google may be managing to weather the current storm is that, for the first time in its history, the majority of its turnover has been generated from clicks on advertising banners originating from outside the USA.