Google rocks mobile like it’s 1999

As a regular habit, I listened in to Google quarterly earnings last night; you can also hear a recording of the call on YouTube.

As expected the company delivered impressive YoY(35%)  and QoQ(15%) growth, just like every other quarter, so what were the key takeaways?

 

  • Impressive growth in the UK (still 11% of Google’s total revenues)  offset the weaker growth in Southern European countries. Spain was specifically highlighted as an under performing country, as you’d expect with concerns around their economy.
  • “Mobile is like desktop search in 1999″ said Nikesh Arora on the continued growth of mobile traffic. Investors on the call pushed hard for further detail on mobile (is it cannibalising desktop traffic?Are the CPCs rising quickly enough? Are advertisers embracing it quickly enough?) but Google would only confess to positive trends without sharing any real numbers.
  • One helpful stat is that advertisers with mobiles sites have doubled year on year.
  • The decline in average CPCs, finally started to reverse. Despite being 16% don’t versus Q2 2011, they were up a modest 1% on Q1 2012.
  • Google+ account activations hit 250 million, but at this stage we don’t have any meaningful engagement statistics.

Investors quizzed heavily on the integration of Motorola into the wider business, but the Googlers were adamant it was too early to comment on this. Asked what they planned to do with the £40bn cash pile they are sat on, they believe it as a strategic asset allowing them to “pounce” on acquisitions, such as Motorola.

All in all, another successful quarter for Google (after hours trading has taken their share price back above £600/share) driven by steady growth in the UK, US and from mobile.

 

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