Google Q1 profit soars to $1.31bn

Google's report on the first quarter of 2008 shows an unexpectedly strong start to the year for the search giant.

The company logged $1.31bn in profit between January and March on total income of $5.19bn.

The $5.19bn in revenues marks a 42 per cent increase from the first quarter of 2007, and a seven per cent rise on the last quarter of 2007.

The majority of Google's income came from its own properties. Sites owned by Google accounted for $3.4bn, making up 66 per cent of the company's total revenues.

AdSense accounted for nearly all the remaining income, bringing in $1.69bn and accounting for 33 per cent of revenues.

Some 51 per cent of income came from outside the US, including $803m from the UK.

Google credited a portion of this to the weak US dollar, estimating that around $18m of its revenues were due to the favourable currency rate.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt said that the integration of DoubleClick into Google's advertising platform would "increase value" for advertisers and partners.

Investors shared Schmidt's rosy outlook on the earnings. Google stock rose 20 per cent following the release of the report, the largest single-day surge on the stock market for the company since its IPO in 2004.

See also:

Google 'close' to bailing out Yahoo

Ad deal may keep Microsoft at bay  18 Apr 2008

Mobile search 'critical' to web publishing

Search advertising races towards $5bn in 2013  17 Apr 2008

Google Earth 4.3 offers better navigation

Updated 3D views and Street View feature  17 Apr 2008

US surfers watch 10 billion videos a month

Volume up 66 per cent year on year  16 Apr 2008

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