Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) July 14 broke the $9 billion sales mark for the first time ever in the second quarter, a 32 percent boost over Q2 2010 revenues of $6.82 billion.
Excluding $2.11 billion in traffic-acquisition costs, the search engine notched $6.92 billion in net revenue in the second quarter of 2011 and non-GAAP earnings per share of $8.74. Analysts polled by Wall Street had expected $6.54 billion in revenue and $7.87 in earnings per share.
Google, which saw company co-founder Larry Page streamline the management team after taking the reins from Eric Schmidt as CEO in April, also recorded a profit of $2.51 billion, up from $1.84 billion in Q2 2010.
"We had a great quarter, with revenue up 32 percent year-on-year for a record breaking over $9 billion of revenue," Google CEO Larry Page said in a statement, adding that he was "super excited about the amazing response to Google+."
So excited was Page about Google+’s momentum that he provided user metrics for the social service. Google+, which in a departure from Facebook’s initial approach lets users add contacts manually and group them into specific social circles, launched June 28 to limited field testing.
"Not surprisingly this has been very well received because, in real life, we share different things with different people," Page said on the company’s Q2 earnings conference call, noting that the invite-only process is necessary to let the company scale the service.
To read the original eWeek article, click here: Google Q2 Sales Top $9B as 10M Google+ Users Join
