Google's profits more than doubled in the second quarter, as the company continued to increase its share of the lucrative search advertising market.
The company, which released its results on Thursday, exceeded analysts' expectations for both sales and profit.
That is in contrast to Yahoo, which disappointed Wall Street on Tuesday with lower-than-expected revenue from search-related advertising. Yahoo met profit expectations because it postponed some hiring and advertising spending.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, attributed its success to several areas in which Yahoo fell short. The company said it continued to develop technology that increases the advertising revenue it earns from each search, while Yahoo said its already delayed effort to build such technology would be another three months late.
Google also continued to expand the number of sites that display advertising it sells, while Yahoo is still absorbing the loss of its largest advertising client, MSN from Microsoft, which is selling its own advertising.
"We did really, really well in a quarter that is seasonally slow," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, in an interview.
"Big companies as they get larger seem to slow down. We continue to innovate," he said.
Google earned US$721.1 million, or US$2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with US$342.8 million, or US$1.19 a share, in the period a year ago. Google's revenue was US$2.46 billion, up 77 percent.
On a conference call with investors, Schmidt said that one top company priority was to expand its advertising business. One aspect of this is to build services for graphical and video advertisements of interest to brand marketers, the strongest area of Yahoo's business.
It also wants to expand its advertising auction system into other media; in that system, advertisers bid to have ads displayed on Web pages. Within three months, Schmidt said, Google will integrate the radio advertising system from its acquisition of DMark Broadcasting into its main service. He did not say what this integration would entail.
The company hopes to start selling advertisements on mobile phones, a service it offers in Japan.
Google continued its breakneck expansion, adding 1,152 employees in the second quarter, leaving it with 7,942 employees on June 30.
Sergey Brin, Google's president for technology, said the rate of hiring had slowed. The employee base grew 20 percent in the first quarter but only 17 percent in the second quarter.
AIR DEFENSE: The Norwegian missile system has proved highly effective in Ukraine in its war against Russia, and the US has recommended it for Taiwan, an expert said The Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Taiwan ordered from the US would be installed in strategically important positions in Taipei and New Taipei City to guard the region, the Ministry of National Defense said in statement yesterday. The air defense system would be deployed in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) and New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水), the ministry said, adding that the systems could be delivered as soon as the end of this year. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has previously said that three NASAMS would be sold to Taiwan. The weapons are part of the 17th US arms sale to
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
BREAKTHROUGH: The US is making chips on par in yield and quality with Taiwan, despite people saying that it could not happen, the official said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer (nm) chips for US customers in Arizona, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said, a milestone in the semiconductor efforts of the administration of US President Joe Biden. In November last year, the commerce department finalized a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona. “For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo said, adding that production had begun in recent
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
RSS