Google and Microsoft both report profit increases during 2013 first quarter
Google has announced a net profit of $3.3bn for the first quarter of 2013, while Microsoft has announced a profit of $6bn over the same period.
Alongside the net profit increase, the search-giant also reported revenue of $13.97bn, an increase of 31 per cent on the first quarter last year.
The figures highlight a turnaround in Google’s ad pricing fortunes as it begins to figure out how to deal with the rise of mobile advertising sold at lower prices than those sold to desktop PCs and laptops, with the latest drop in the price of clicks at 4 per cent. During the same period last year there had been a 12 per cent drop.
Commented Victor Pan, senior data analyst for WordStream: “As Cost Per Click's remain somewhat high, a key to growing advertising revenue in the future will be to provide easier tools to enable advertisers to be even more targeted with their ad spend and thus drive more ROI. Like how Enhanced Campaigns make it easier for advertisers to bid specifically for right traffic at the right time, location and device - all within a single campaign.”
Google yesterday announced that it was to close its Affiliate Network in order to focus on other cost per action products.
Meanwhile, the rise in profit by Microsoft of over 17 per cent on the same period last year follows the release of its Windows 8 platform, despite a global decline in the purchasing of desktop PCs.
“The bold bets we made on cloud services are paying off as people increasingly choose Microsoft services including Office 365, Windows Azure, Xbox LIVE, and Skype,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “While there is still work to do, we are optimistic that the bets we’ve made on Windows devices position us well for the long-term.”
The software company also announced that its chief financial officer Peter Klein would depart at the end of the fiscal year after almost four years in the role.