Google reports 23% year-on-year growth

The web giant has said that it remains committed to "heavy investment in innovation" on the back of strong financial results.

Google has reported revenues of US$6.77 billion for the quarter ended March 31, 2010, which the firm says is an increase of 23% compared to the first quarter of 2009.

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $4.44 billion, or 66% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 20% increase over first quarter 2009 revenues of $3.69 billion.

Google's partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, of $2.04 billion, or 30% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2010. This represents a 24% increase from first quarter 2009 network revenues of $1.64 billion.

Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $3.58 billion, representing 53% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2010, compared to 53% in the fourth quarter of 2009 and 52% in the first quarter of 2009.

“Google performed very well in the first quarter, with 23% year over year revenue growth driven by strength across all major verticals and geographies,” said Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google. “Going forward, we remain committed to heavy investment in innovation -- both to spur future growth in our core and emerging businesses as well as to help build the future of the open web.”

On a worldwide basis, Google employed 20,621 full-time employees as of March 31, 2010, up from 19,835 full-time employees as of December 31, 2009.