Google earnings came in slightly below Wall Street expectations, dragged down by rising operating costs. California-based Google reported a first-quarter net profit of $2.3 billion, up from $1.96 billion a year ago.
Net revenue at the internet giant rose 29% to $6.54 billion in the quarter which ended on March 31, better than the $6.32 billion expected by analysts, but earnings per share of $8.08 came in below the forecast of $8.11.
Google said operating expenses were $2.84 billion in the first quarter, or 33% of revenue, compared to $1.84 billion in the first quarter of 2010, or 27% of revenue.
Google said it added nearly 2,000 full-time employees in the quarter, taking the total to 26,316 as of March 31. Google has announced plans to hire a record 6,000 workers this year as it does battle with rising social networking stars such as Facebook and Twitter.
New chief executive Larry Page, the Google co-founder who replaced Eric Schmidt last week, has made social a priority at the Internet search giant.
Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette focused on the increased revenue in a statement and said investment was needed to position Google for the future.
'We had a great quarter with 27% year-over-year revenue growth,' Pichette said. 'These results demonstrate the value of search and search ads to our users and customers, as well as the extraordinary potential of areas like display and mobile,' he said.
He also said that operating costs were impacted by a 10% across-the-board salary hike for 'Googlers' at the beginning of the year.
The company said last night that 350,000 mobile devices running the company's Android software were being activated every day around the world and that three billion Android applications have been downloaded.
