Google's 25 per cent revenue growth fails to impress Wall Street

ADVERTISING BROKER Google announced that it "blew past" the $10bn revenue mark in its fourth quarter financial results, but it failed to meet analyst expectations.

Google reported revenues of $10.58bn in its fourth quarter of 2011, a 25 per cent increase from a year earlier with the UK accounting for almost 10 per cent of that. Profit for the quarter was $2.71bn, a six per cent increase from last year.

Larry Page, Google's CEO said, "I am super excited about the growth of Android, Gmail, and Google+, which now has 90 million users globally - well over double what I announced just three months ago. By building a meaningful relationship with our users through Google+ we will create amazing experiences across our services. I'm very excited about what we can do in 2012 - there are tremendous opportunities to help users and grow our business."

The company's impressive 25 per cent increase in revenues wasn't enough for investors, however, who had expected more. That left Google's shares taking a battering, dropping $50 to $589.58.

Page's revelation that Google+ has over 90 million users will raise a few eyebrows. Its rate of growth - doubling every three months - is something of a shock, as the social network is still something of a ghost town.

Although Google's income has grown, the fact that its revenue didn't grow anywhere near as fast brings into sharp focus the extra costs Google faces. Not only is it battling rivals such as Apple and Facebook for market share with Android and Google+, respectively, it is mired in legal battles either directly or via proxy, and that is likely to have investors worried. µ