Google Q1 profits up 31 % - UK revenue 15% of total

by Media Week Media Week 22-Apr-08

Google's UK revenues accounted for 15% of the search engine's total net income, according to its first-quarter results announced last Thursday, which revealed a total rise in net profits of 31% to $1.31bn (£655m).

Turnover for the UK totalled $803m (£402m), while revenues from outside the US accounted for 51% of the total at $2.65bn (£1.3bn) - a 4% rise on last year's first quarter figure. While UK revenue as a proportion of worldwide fell from 16% in Q1 2007, it was up from 14% in Q4 2007.

Total worldwide ad revenue was $5bn (£2.5bn) for March 2008 compared to $3.6bn (£1.8bn) a year ago. Of this sum, Google's websites represented 66% of total revenue at $3.4bn (£1.7bn) compared to $2.3bn (£1.1bn) last March.

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 the release of comScore data recently, which had suggested that there had been a sharp reduction in click-throughs in the three months to March.

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