Google registers huge Q2 profits

NEW YORK: Google Inc has reported a 36 per cent growth in net income to $2.51 billion for the April-June period of 2011 driven by robust performance of core search business coupled with growing strength in other areas such as social network. 

In the year-ago period, the company had a net income of $1.84 billion, the Internet search firm said in a statement. 

The company posted revenues of $9.03 billion for the second quarter ended June 30, 2011, an increase of 32 per cent compared to the same period of 2010. 

"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 per cent year on year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue," Google CEO Larry Page said. 

Google, which recently launched a social network site called Google plus is believed to have more than 10 million people plugged into it. The company is "super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you (user)share just like in real life". 

The robust quarterly numbers indicate that company is not only growing in its core search business but also powering ahead in other areas such as new businesses like Google+ and Android. 

In addition, the company is also expanding in areas such as mobile and display advertising. 

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $6.23 billion in the second quarter of 2011, or 69 per cent of total revenues. This represents a 39 per cent jump over the year-ago quarter 2010 revenues of $4.50 billion. 

Besides, the company's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programmes, of $2.48 billion, in the second quarter of 2011, up 20 per cent from the year-ago period'. 

Internet search giant said its paid clicks, a measure of how frequently consumers click on its ads, grew 18 per cent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. The average price that marketers paid Google per click rose 12 per cent from a year earlier. 

During the quarter, the company has hired over 2,400 new personnel to touch 28,768 employees as of June 30, 2011.