Ann-Marie Corvin, Media Week, 18 April 2008, 3:40pm

Google UK revenue percentage down on last year

LONDON - Google's UK revenues accounted for 15% of the search engine's total net income according to its first-quarter results, down 1% on the same period last year but up 1% on last year's fourth-quarter results.

Google revealed a total rise in net profits of 31% to $1.31bn (£655m) while revenues for the UK totalled $803m (£402m).

Total revenues from outside the US accounted for 51% of first-quarter revenues at $2.65bn (£1.3bn) - a 4% rise on last year's first-quarter results. Total revenue from Google's Network websites came to $1.7bn (£830m), compared to $1.3bn (£650m) a year ago.

A 20% rise in the number of paid-for-clicks - including those related to ads served on Google sites and those of its AdSense partners - has surprised the industry, following a number of reports that suggested a sharp reduction in click-throughs in the three months to March 2008.

In a trading statement, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said that as the company integrated DoubleClick - the online ad company bought last year for $3.1bn (£1.5bn) - into its ad platform, he envisaged "exciting new ways to improve the user experience and increase value for advertisers and partners."