Diversity and agility will become Google's greatest asset.
While some analysts believe the company could spread resources too thin, its
first quarter 2013 earnings prove otherwise. Profit rose 16%, earning $3.35 billion, compared with the year-ago quarter, as the tech giant experienced improved revenue growth in its core advertising
business.
Google's revenue in the quarter ending March 31, 2013, rose 31% to nearly $14 billion, compared with the first quarter in 2012. Revenue from advertising, and other, rose 22% to $12.95
billion in the quarter, compared with the year-ago quarter. The number of times users clicked on search ads rose 20% in the quarter, compared with the year-ago quarter, offsetting cost per clicks
(CPCs), which fell 4%.
Google-owned sites generated $8.64 billion in revenue during Q1 2013, up 18% compared with the year-ago quarter. Partner sites generated $3.26 billion in revenue, up 12%
from the year-ago quarter. Revenue from international was $7.1 billion.
Organic and paid search, which makes up the majority of Google's revenue, will change dramatically in the next few
years. Google Voice, Knowledge Graph and Google Now serve answers to question before they're asked.
Google CEO Larry Page's view of ads as content or as a source of information fits into the
strategy: "The better job we can do in providing information, even without you asking for it, the better we can also provide commercial [or promotional] information," Page said.
Motorola
Mobile revenue came in at $1.02 billion. Mobile advertising spend in the U.S. will reach $7.29 billion in 2013, with Google taking home more 54.7% this year, up from 52.8% in 2012, according to
eMarketer. Facebook, by comparison, will see its share rise to 13.2% in 2013, up from 9.5% last year.
Google Fiber will become more than the gigabyte-speed experiment co-founder Sergey Brin
wanted to build. Following the addition of Austin, Texas, to the short list of cities gaining Google Fiber, the tech company said Provo, Utah, will become the next city. It signed an agreement to
purchase iProvo, an existing fiber-optic network owned by the city. As a part of the acquisition, Google committed to upgrading the network to gigabit technology and finish network construction so
every home along the existing iProvo network would have the opportunity to connect to Google Fiber, pending city council approval.
The company Thursday also released a commenting system in
Google+ that connects comments on Blogger, displaying discussions on both platforms related to the user's post. If there's a public Google+ discussion about a blog entry in Blogger, the comment will
appear in both places, similar to the open source technology Google tested in 2010 called Salmon.