Google is not immune to the recession. That’s the message swirling around the search giant in the wake of its first quarter earnings report.
Google reported revenues of $5.51 billion for the first quarter, an increase of 6 percent compared to the year-ago period but a 3 percent decrease compared to the fourth quarter of 2008. Sales after subtracting commissions to its partners totaled $4.07 billion.
Google’s net income was $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share, compared to net income of $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, in the year-ago period. That met Wall Street expectations, but showed that Google is not escaping the impacts of a down economy. Still, Google remains optimistic.
“Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession — while revenues were down quarter over quarter, they grew 6 percent year over year, thanks to continued strong query growth. These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the Web as users and advertisers shift online,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt. “Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses.”
Cost Cutting Pays Off
In more good news, Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.70 billion, or 67 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2009. That marks a 9 percent increase over first quarter 2008 revenues of $3.4 billion and a 3 percent decrease from fourth quarter 2008 revenues of $3.81 billion.
Meanwhile, Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $1.64 billion, or 30 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2009. That marks a 3 percent decrease from first quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion and a 3 percent decrease from fourth quarter 2008 network revenues of $1.69 billion.
Revenues from outside of the United…