Google have seen a net income of $1.48bn in the three months to 30 June 2009 compared with $1.25bn the same period in 2008 making for better-than-expected results. Also paid search including AdSense were reported to be 15% higher year-on-year, but 2% less than in the first quarter.
Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt said: “These results highlight the enduring strength of our business model and our responsible efforts to manage expenses.”
No doubt Google’s business model and how it manages expenses is probably second to none however there are probably a host of reasons for this increase. For a start more businesses are moving online by the hour and so with it an increase in online marketing which more than likely will involve using paid search.
Also in this economic downturn it is all about survival and to survive you need to be seen and to be seen you need to advertise and paid search is probably the most cost effective way of doing so, and to top it off it is measurable!
Another reason is the development of mobile devices and the ability to tap into the mobile market. Google have been focusing a lot on this market and it is no doubt one that has the potential to be huge and so it will not be too surprising if the increase continues over to the next quarter or two.
These results are interesting and it is good to see that some businesses are seeing some positives during this economic downturn even if it is Google. It will be interesting however to see if the next quarter shows similar results and even more interesting this time next year when (or should I say if) Bing matures a bit more and the battle of the search engines intensifies.
