Google revenues top $9bn in Page's maiden quarter

Google revenues topped $9 billion during Larry Page's inaugural quarter in charge, a first for the Mountain View ad broker.

Page took the opportunity to tell the world how excited he is about Google's latest attempt to mimic Facebook. "We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 per cent year on year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue,” he said in a canned statement. “I'm super excited about the amazing response to Google+ which lets you share just like in real life.”

During a conference call with reporters and industry analysts, Page said much the same thing, and he claimed that the company "substantially increased our velocity and execution" thanks to the new "product-focused" management structure he introduced when he took over as CEO on April 4. "The new management team is working together fabulously," he said, "and has a achieved a lot in just these three months."

In the quarter ending June 30, Google's net income reached $2.51 billion, up from $1.84 billion during the same quarter last year. Google-owned sites produced revenues of $6.23 billion, a 39 per cent increase over the same quarter last year, while AdSense partner sites pulled in $2.48 billion, a 20 per cent leap.

Aggregate paid clicks across Google and AdSense partner sites climbed 18 per cent since the same quarter last year, but they were down 2 per cent since the first quarter of this year. The company's average cost per click climbed 12 per cent from last year and 2 per cent from the previous quarter.

According to Page, over 10 million people are now using Google+, which launched on June 29, and these users are sharing over one billion "items" each day. He also said that over 550,000 Android phones are being activated each day and that 160 million people are now using the company's Chrome browser. ®