In another positive sign for Wall Street, Google on Thursday reported a year-over-year increase in its second-quarter revenue. The earnings suggest the online advertising market may be recovering even as the search giant’s cost-cutting measures are paying off.
Google reported revenue of $5.52 billion for the quarter ended June 30, a modest increase of three percent compared to the second quarter of 2008. After accounting for the $1.45 billion it paid to advertisers, Google ended the quarter with $4.07 billion in revenue.
“Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macroeconomic downturn. While most of the world’s largest economies shrank, Google’s year-over-year revenues were up three percent,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. “These results highlight the enduring strength of our business model and our responsible efforts to manage expenses in a way that puts us in a good position for the economic upturn, when it occurs. We remain focused on investing in technical innovation to drive growth in our core and new businesses.”
Across-the-Board Boosts
Google-owned sites generated revenue of $3.65 billion, or 66 percent of total revenue, in the second quarter, compared to $3.53 billion a year ago. Meanwhile, Google’s partner sites generated $1.68 billion in revenue through AdSense programs, to total 31 percent of the search giant’s revenue for the quarter. This represents a two percent increase from second-quarter 2008 network revenue of $1.66 billion.
Revenue from outside the United States totaled $2.91 billion, representing 53 percent of total revenue in the quarter, compared to 52 percent in the first quarter and in the second quarter of 2008. U.K. revenue totaled $715 million, representing 13 percent of revenues in the second quarter, compared to 14 percent in the year-ago period.
Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of Google’s AdSense partners,…