Google feels the pinch

Posted on 17 Apr 2009 at 10:12

Google has reported its first ever drop in quarterly revenue, showing that even the biggest dot.com success story is not immune to the economic downturn.

The search giant’s revenue for the first three months of the year totalled %5.51 billion, down 3% on the last quarter of 2008.

However, with the company having tightened its belt recently, instigating a hiring freeze among other measures, net profit was up and year-on-year revenue continued to climb, rising 6%.

“Google had a good quarter given the depth of the recession—while revenues were down quarter over quarter, they grew 6% year over year, thanks to continued strong query growth,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google chief executive. “These results underline both the resilience of our business model and the ongoing potential of the web as users and advertisers shift online. Going forward, our priority remains investing for the long term to drive future growth in our core and emerging businesses.”

Patrick Pichette, Google’s chief financial officer, said that the company remains focused on growth.

“Ninety-five% of all our internal discussions are still about growth. But it would be irresponsible not to watch our expenses in a tough economy like this.”

Author: Simon Aughton

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