Google trounced expectations with a 32% increase in third quarter profit to $2.17 billion (€1.5 billion), sending its stock price soaring in after-hours trading.
Revenue grew 23% year-on-year to $7.29 billion, while operating income was 30% of revenues or $2.55 billion, Google said.
Earnings per share beat Wall Street expectations by nearly a dollar. Google's Nasdaq stock climbed 9% - or nearly $50 - to $590.00 in after-hours trading.
Boss Eric Schmidt said the growth of its Android OS was “well past what I had ever hoped for,” and said the platform now has around 90,000 apps and counting.
He said people who use Android search twice as much as typical mobile users, and that search revenue is more lucrative for Google on the platform than competing operating systems. These factors mean “Android can become a hugely profitable business for us,” he said.
Giving details for the first time of its segment revenues, Google revealed it had earned $2.5 billion from non-text display advertising, including ads from YouTube. Around two billion YouTube views are now monetized every week, while the site serves two billion views per day.
Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.83 billion, up 22% on 2009. The company earned 52% of its total revenue from outside of the US.
Capex hit $757 million while operating expenses increased to $2.19 billion from $1.64 billion in 3Q09, as Google invested heavily in expansion.
Schmidt said the increased spending will continue. “We remain committed to aggressive investment in both our people and our products as we pursue an innovation agenda,” he said.