Google results up, but staff taking toll on profits

Too many cooks for city's liking

15 April 2011 10:33 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Google has delivered it’s Q1 financial results this week, citing a 27 per cent increase in revenue over the previous year. However, profits are down due to the huge costs attached to hiring an additional 2,000 members of staff.

They have been brought on board in order for Google to grow its Android part of the business, as well as prepare to launch the forthcoming Chrome OS desktop version of its browser. So, while profits are down, the figures show that the web giant is heavily investing in the future.

It's also worth noting that it was co-founder Larry Page’s first earning report since taking the CEO hot seat once again.

Now the stats: Google made around $8 billion dollars in the first three months of 2011, giving it over $36 billion in the bank, with most of that money coming from its own sites rather than adverts, such as its AdSense programme that features on external site - like Pocket-lint.

The average cost-per-click, which is the earnings it makes on people clicking on adverts, increased approximately 8 per cent over the first quarter of 2010 and decreased by approximately 1 per cent over the fourth quarter of 2010.

However, earnings and revenue aside, Google didn’t meet city expectations.

Full tags

Google, Results, Biz, Search engines