By Elinor Mills Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: January 31, 2007, 1:49 PM PST
update Google's fourth-quarter revenue rose 67 percent and profit nearly tripled on continued strength in its cash cow paid search business.
Handily beating analysts estimates, net earnings for the quarter ended December 31 were $1.03 billion, or $3.29 a share, including one-time items such as stock-based compensation, compared with $372 million, or $1.22 a share, during the same quarter in 2005. Excluding those items, earnings were $997 million, or $3.18 a share.
Total revenue for the quarter rose 67 percent to $3.2 billion, compared to $1.92 billion a year ago. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, or commission paid to content partners, revenue was $2.23 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting Google to post earnings per share of $2.92 excluding items, and revenue of $2.19 billion, excluding traffic acquisition costs.
Paid search represents nearly all of Google's revenue. The company is expanding its advertising platform beyond the Web into radio and print.
"We paid over $3 billion in 2006 to our partners and this is a figure that we expect is going to increase as we ramp up our video, radio and print programs," founder Sergey Brin said in a conference call with analysts.
Asked about whether the company plans to help companies advertise on television, Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said: "We have already said that we are experimenting with traditional television advertising...There are many reasons to believe that the targeting technology we have invented can apply well, that advertisers will pay much higher rates for ads that are targeted."
As for YouTube, Google suspects content creators will take advantage of the direct link to fans that the video-sharing site provides, said Schmidt. "We can connect the copyright owner with the user," he said. "We're pushing for a model where the people who produce the content get some revenue back." In addition, Google is working on audio and video fingerprinting technologies to protect copyright holders, he said.
When it comes to search, paid clicks on ads on Google's network and its publisher partners' Web sites grew more than 60 percent in the aggregate, according to Chief Financial Officer George Reyes.
While things look rosy for Google, its largest search rival posted more modest fourth quarter results. Last week, Yahoo's earnings were down more than 60 percent from a year ago.
Web traffic to Google grew 24 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier and Google accounts for more than half of all Web searches, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The company is expected to capture two-thirds of the search advertising revenue this year, according to eMarketer.
Google shares, which closed at $501.50, dropped as much as 2 percent in after-hours trading after the company failed to make so-called "whisper numbers" on the street that were slightly higher than the estimates that they beat. The stock has risen nearly 18 percent over the past year, about the same amount that Yahoo's has fallen.
内容简介
Google2006年第四季度的营收增长了67%，达到了32亿美元，而去年同期是19.2亿美元。2006年第四季度的净收益达到10.3亿美元，而去年的数字是3.72亿美元，超越了华尔街的预期，大约是去年同期的3倍。
评价
1.Google股价的一直在500美元附近徘徊，在营收利好消息的刺激下，Google的股价将毫无悬念的超过500美元，达到新的高度。
2.Google的营收增长主要得益于对YoTube的收购以及向传统广播、平面媒体的渗透。这样的结果是亚洲和太平洋地区的风险投资会逐步加大对互联网的投资。
3.需要指出的是，在未来的不久，也有可能出现新一轮的网络泡沫，但是由于Google的坚挺，会比上一次网络泡沫带来的影响要小。
4.对比中国的搜索引擎市场，中国的市场还没有那样的成熟，市场的爆发还需要一定的时间。中国的搜索引擎的总体市场营收为0.6亿美元左右（4.76亿人民币）-见以下新闻，而且出现放缓的趋势，属于不太正常的市场态势，几大巨头在中国的竞争给中国的搜索引擎市场带来更多的悬念。
新闻：2006年4季度中国搜索引擎厂商收入4.76亿
作者：出处：上海证券报[ 2007-01-31 08:35 ]
据易观国际《2006年第3季度中国搜索引擎市场季度监测》最新报告显示，2006年4季度，不计算渠道的收入，搜索引擎厂商收入达到4.76亿元，增长14.4%，略高于3季度的10.3%，其中搜索引擎网站和搜索引擎联盟的市场规模为分别为4.1亿和0.66亿，分别占搜索引擎市场的86.1%和13.9%。
2006年4季度，百度收入预计达到2.76亿元, 并进一步扩大了市场份额，从第3季度的57%上升到58%。Google在4季度的收入为0.81亿，市场份额达17%，超过雅虎中国排名上升到第二位。雅虎中国收入增长缓慢，市场份额为13%，落后于Google。
从2006年全年看，搜索引擎市场厂商的收入达到15.7亿元，比2005年增长69.1%，但2006年下半年比上半年仅增长31%，与2002-2005年间的年均90%以上的增长速度相比，明显放缓。
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