A 35 per cent jump in second-quarter profits at Google yesterday failed to ease concerns about the impact of the ailing US economy on the internet search engine company.
Google earned $1.25 billion (£625m) in the quarter to June, up from $925m last year.
But the results were the fourth time it has failed to hit targets in four years as a public firm, causing shares to fall overnight in New York.
Google's mana
gement insisted the company will thrive even if the US economy weakens further.
More than half the company's revenues – $2.8bn – stem from international markets, helping to offset some of the current economic weakness in the US.
However, the number of paid clicks on websites operated by Google and its partners during the second quarter fell 1 per cent from the first quarter, the first sequential downturn that the company has reported in the category.
The 19 per cent year-over-year increase in Google's paid clicks was also the company's lowest ever.
Stanford Group analyst Clayton Moran viewed the performance as "confirmation that there is a slowdown in internet advertising affecting Google".
Google's chief economist Hal Varian said: "Consumers are being cautious in online spending patterns, just as they are in their offline spending patterns."
The full article contains 221 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
