Google Inc’s first-quarter sales climb as advertising volume increases
National Post Tech Desk - Thu, 04/23/2015 - 13:25
Google Inc.’s revenue climbed 14 per cent as the number of ads on the company’s search properties gained.
Sales, minus revenue passed to partners, rose to US$13.9 billion in the first quarter, the company said in a statement Thursday. That compared with analysts’ average projection for US$14 billion, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Google is stepping up investments to ensure that people continue to spend time using search, shopping and other Internet services. That in turn boosted the Web company’s advertising volume, which rose 13 per cent. Users are going straight to Facebook Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and other Web-based services as they spend more time on smartphones and tablets, and Google is making sure that its main search services continues to lure people and advertising dollars.
“Search continues to be a very valuable ad unit,” said Sameet Sinha, an analyst at B. Riley & Co. “Everybody likes search.”
RelatedThe shares of Mountain View, California-based Google rose in extended trading. The stock advanced 1.5 per cent to US$557.46 at the close in New York, leaving it up 5.1 per cent this year.
First-quarter net income was US$3.59 billion, compared with US$3.45 billion a year earlier.
Excluding some items, profit was US$6.57 a share, missing analysts’ average projection for US$6.63.
Google is stepping up investments in new businesses to drive growth. Earlier this week, it unveiled a new wireless service called Project Fi. Google also plans to offer a subscriber version of YouTube as soon as this year, letting viewers see clips without having to sit through ads.
The company also is trying to improve its search experience on smartphones. Earlier this week, Google updated its search service to favour websites that are tailored to mobile devices.
“They still own the search business,” said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities Inc. “But people are finding better ways — or at least alternative ways — to find the information that they want. That can be Twitter; that can be your friends on Facebook.”