Google is flying. Revenue is up over 12 billion, a growth of 35% in the second quarter. 54,604 employees which now includes those from Motorola Mobility which it acquired last year for 12.5 billion usd.PPC Advertising (pay per click) increased 42% on the year and they have, wait for it, 43 bilion usd in cash.
This is one impressive company.
In particular, a theme from the announcement of the financials was the continued growth in mobile. “The good news is, we’re seeing phenomenal growth in mobile queries across the board,” CEO Arora said. “Mobile is right now where search was in 1999.”
As mobile searches grow however, they are not taking away from desktop searches and are seen as being incremental. Mainly, because you want to search at the office but also on the move and the development of smartphones has allowed you to do that, easily. Again one thinks of the old world 'directory enquiry business' which must now be pushed to one side and again we see a Web business banning them to the dustbin of history.
Google is the biggest site in the world before Facebook in second and YouTube (which google owns) in third and it's a brand we all know so well (except at Techcrunch because when you type 'Google' into the Techcrunch search engine you get a "sorry, no results").
There's no doubt this is a company which is at its peak.
Marissa Meyer's departure this week to head up rival Yahoo! will cause no great problems but it's an indication as to how Google is being perceived that their management is being sought out. She's rumoured to be on 1 million usd basic and up to 16 million including share options.
Google also announced on Wednesday it will expand its third party API partners to "hundreds" for Google+. Exactly what Twitter is mistakenly not doing. It's also getting behind causes like Gay Rights "Legalize Love" campaign and therefore showing itself to be willing to give something back. Absolutely to be applauded.(How could anyone be against Gay rights anyway?)
Search is still at the core but new formats producing relevance, will take it further.
However, it's hard to see search continuing to drive these types of numbers so I think Google, sitting on all that cash, will start looking at acquistions. At a conference this week, PayPal co-founder Peter Theil said;
“Google also has $50 billion in cash,” Thiel added. “It has no idea how
to invest that money in technology effectively … if we’re living in an
accelerating technological world, and you have zero percent interest
rates, you should be able to invest all of your money in things that
will return it many times over. The fact is you’re out of ideas.”
Perhaps but I think they're not out of ideas, just getting ready for the big one.Twitter? Pinterest? But I think it points to an opportunity for Google to really start stirring things up and use that cash. Their business is hugely strong, YouTube is in a great place too, the question is, what next?
Google are in pole position.
Somethings coming.
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