Google just released its 2013 first quarter earnings and posted $3.35 billion in profits, up from $2.89 billion in the first quarter of 2012.
Revenue for 2013 first quarter was $14 billion, up 31 percent from last year. Non-GAAP earnings were at $11.58 per share compared to $10.08 in the first quarter of 2012.
Google CEO Larry Page called it a “very strong start” to 2013.
“We are working hard and investing in our products that aim to improve billions of people’s lives all around the world,” Page said in a press release.
Wall Street was expecting Google to report Q1 earnings of $10.66 a share and revenue of $14.23 billion, so Google beat the profit expectations but fell short of the revenue mark.
Google is also sitting on $50 billion cash as of March 31, 2013.
Page took some questions on the earnings call and said Google is still focusing on its core products and “big bets”: Chrome, YouTube and Android.
“That’s where the vast majority of our resources are going,” Page said.
But Page did say that the company is putting a lot of effort into its “big bets” of the future like Google Fiber and Google Glass. “A big part of my job is to get people to focus on things that are not incremental,” he said.
He said Glass gives him “chills,” because he thinks it represents the future. Page added that he uses it mostly for taking photos and videos, making phone calls, sending messages and getting directions — the core functionality of what Google built into Glass.
“We’re excited to get it out to some developers and have other people create some amazing experiences with it,” he said of Glass. “We’re still in the early days, but it’s very exciting.”
Page also discussed smartphones, saying that they need longer battery life and unbreakable screens that aren’t affected by water damage. That could possibly hint at what Google-owned Motorola’s new hardware could feature.
Here’s the press release in full, and here are the financial statements.
