14 DAY TRIAL // Google's decision of focusing more on the quality of the ads provided to the users, and not on their number, has apparently paid off. The total revenues recorded for the second semester of 2008 reached $5.37 billion, an increase of 3% compared with the first three months of this year. Going even further than that, as opposed to the same quarter last year, the rate of increase was of 39%.
"Strong international growth as well as sustained traffic increases on Google's web properties propelled us to another strong quarter, despite a more challenging economic environment," said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. "As we continue to focus on innovating in our core business of search, ads and apps, we also look forward to enhancing the experience of our users and expanding the reach of our advertisers and partners with new technologies and formats, particularly as our integration of DoubleClick gains momentum and creates new opportunities in display advertising and elsewhere," he added.
Google's U.S. market totals up 52% of the worldwide one, and it brought a total of $2.80 billion in the second semester. As the percent grew from 48% last year, it seems like the company can rely more on the safer-than-the-average American economy. The second biggest marketplace for Google's products is the U.K., with 14% of world's total. The revenues from England totaled $774 million, going down by 1% in comparison with last year's Q2 and this year's first semester.
The interest income dropped dramatically at $58 million, compared with the $167 million of the first quarter. "The decrease was primarily related to lower yields on our cash balances, as well as lower average cash balances as a result of cash used in the first quarter to acquire DoubleClick; lower net realized gains on the sale of our marketable securities; and an increase in expenses as a result of more activity under our foreign exchange risk management program," the official press release stated, underscoring that, sometimes, what appears to be negative is, in fact, for the better.
Of course, Google's new politics, which implies reducing the number of ads, might be dangerous in the long term. Sergey Brin, one of the company's co-founders, voiced his concerns during a conference call with the investors, as the New York Times technology blog reveals. "There is some evidence we have been a little more aggressive in decreasing coverage than we should have been," said the executive, suggesting that the team from Google might reconsider their principles.