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Good news hit the online advertising world today with the announcement that Google handily topped Wall Street estimates for the first quarter. The news may put to rest fears that online advertising is beginning to feel pressure from the U.S. economic downturn.
Google’s net income for the first quarter rose 30 percent to $1.31 billion; excluding one-time charges, the search giant earned $1.54 billion, beating estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. Sales rose 42 percent to $5.2 billion, writes CNN Money.
International revenue for the first time surpassed sales in the U.S., making up 51 percent of the company’s total sales. The U.K. accounted for 15 percent of Google’s revenue, up 1 percentage point from the fourth quarter. The U.K.’s economy expanded 2.8 percent in Q4, compared with just a 0.6 percent growth in the U.S.
Analysts, who had predicted a slump in online advertising, made their predictions based on data from comScore, which showed little growth in paid clicks, according to Bloomberg. ComScore had said growth of clicks on ads had slowed to 1.8 percent in the first quarter. Google, however, cited an increase of 20 percent. TheStreet.com points out that in last year’s first quarter, Google’s paid clicks had grown 52 percent year over year.
The difference in data may come from the way each measures clicks.
Google’s two largest competitors, Microsoft and Yahoo, are in a complicated mating dance, with Yahoo having rejected Microsoft’s original offer and Microsoft making threatening noises about a hostile bid for control. In the meantime, rumors about a possible merger between Yahoo and AOL or of a joint takeover of Yahoo by Microsoft and News Corp have erupted.
Hyper-conservative Rush Limbaugh - heard weekly by nearly 20 million listeners on about 600 radio stations nationwide - renewed his contract with Premiere Radio Networks and Clear Channel Radio, continuing syndication of The Rush Limbaugh Show.
The deal also includes…
WSJ.com’s traffic soared an impressive 94 percent in June compared to the same month last year, according to the company’s internal traffic numbers.
Total page views ballooned 45 percent, to 150 million, compared to the same month last year, writes Mediaweek.…
Kozy Shack, maker of rice and chocolate pudding, is sponsoring the New York Mets, with tubs of the pudding being sold individually at Shea Stadium as well as being included in children’s meals. And the snacks are selling so well…
Though U.K. advertiser investment committed for 2008 is staying put, discretionary spending is becoming shorter-term, at or slightly short of budget; still, WPP’s GroupM forecasts 4 percent growth in 2008 and 3 percent in 2009 for the U.K., thanks to internet…
Email is the most popular form of direct response marketing, with 35 percent of companies using it - compared to 25 percent that use traditional direct mail - according to a new survey conducted by Direct Partners (via Adweek).
The survey…
Without spam protection, the average web user can expect to get 70 spam messages each day, according to a survey by McAfee, the BBC reports (via MarketingVOX).
For the McAfee spam test, 50 people worldwide were asked to web-surf without a spam…
