Google revenues for the fourth quarter were up 17pc which CEO Eric Schmidt attributed to the resilience of the company’s business model and the pace of innovation coming out of the company.
Google reported revenues of US$6.67bn for the quarter, an increase of 17pc compared to US$5.7bn in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Google employs over 1,500 people in Ireland and during a visit to Ireland in October Schmidt confirmed that it will be expanding operations in Dublin.
The company reported fourth quarter profits of US$1.97bn, compared to US$382m in the fourth quarter of 2008.
Google-owned sites generated revenues of US$4.42 billion, or 66pc of total revenues, a 16pc increase over fourth quarter 2008 revenues of US$3.81 billion.
Google’s partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programmes, of US$2.04bn, or 31pc of total revenues, a 21pc increase on the previous year.
Revenues from outside the US totaled US$3.52bn, representing 53pc of total revenues.
“Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17pc year over year revenue growth,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.
“Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year.
“Our performance in 2009 underscored the strength of our management team, the resilience of our business model and the pace of innovation within our product and engineering teams, which continued unabated throughout the downturn.
“As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web,” Schmidt said.
By John Kennedy
Photo: John Herlihy, general manager of Google’s EMEA operations and CEO Eric Schmidt.
