Google said it earned $4.66 per share in the quarter ending June 30, up from $3.92 per share, or a total of $1.25 billion, in the same quarter last year.<\/p>\n
The search engine giant said its net revenue for the quarter rose to $4.07 billion as compared to $3.9 billion the same period in 2008.<\/p>\n
“Google had a very good quarter, especially given the continued macro-economic downturn,” chief executive Eric Schmidt said in a release.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Google reported that “paid-click” advertising was 15% higher than in the same quarter last year, down two percent from last quarter, but Schmidt said the company’s advertising business appears to have stabilised.<\/p>\n
“We are not looking at the downward spiral we were seeing six months ago,” he said during an earnings conference call.<\/p>\n
“It is too early for us to tell when the recovery will materialise. I wish we could just prove it. The recovery will eventually come; it always comes.”<\/p>\n
Schmidt said the money brought in by Google-owned YouTube has tripled in the past year and the service could be “a really profitable business in the not too distant future”.<\/p>\n
“YouTube is now on a trajectory we are very pleased with,” he added, though Google has yet to see any profit from the video-sharing site, which it bought in 2006 in a stock deal valued at $1.65 billion.<\/p>\n
Schmidt said Google will continue to invest in developing new enterprises, including its recently-announced open-source Chrome OS operating system project, which could challenge Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows software.<\/p>\n