Google Q1 net up 3.88% at $3.59 bn; revenue rises 12% to $17.26 bn

Google Inc, the world's largest internet search company, has reported a net (after-tax) income of $3.586 billion in the first quarter of 2015 ended 31 March 2015, a 3.88-per cent increase compared to the net income of $3.452 billion in the quarter ended 31 March 2014.

Earnings per share for the quarter rose to $5.20 a share from $5.04 per share in the year-ago quarter.

Mountain View, California-based Google saw its consolidated revenue rise 12 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2015 to $17.258 billion compared with $15.420 in the January-March 2014 quarter.

Net revenue stood at $13.9 billion during the January-March 2015 quarter, up from $12.2 billion during the first quarter of 2014.

Google, which earns half its advertising revenue in overseas markets, cited a stronger dollar as a reason for its dwindling revenue.

''Excluding hedging gains of $311 million related to our foreign exchange risk management program, had foreign exchange rates remained constant from the first quarter of 2014 through the first quarter of 2015, our revenues in the first quarter of 2015 would have been $795 million higher. Additionally, our constant currency revenue growth in the first quarter of 2015 was 17 per cent year over year,'' Google stated in its earnings release.

"If these currency trends persist, foreign exchange headwinds would obviously continue to impact our results in 2015," Patrick Pichette, Google's outgoing chief financial officer, said.

Google, however, seems to be lagging its new rivals like Facebook in raising or even maintaining its ad revenue on the face of increasing use of mobile phones.

Also, while Google's global aggregate paid clicks went up by 13 per cent year-over-year, cost-per-click (CPC), or the amount of money paid by advertisers each time a user clicks an ad, has gone down by 7 per cent.

Pichette, however, refused to acknowledge the a weak mobile application is driving down Google's revenue, claiming that Google's strength in mobile is the main factor behind the company's continuing, albeit slow, growth.