Although Google is still on top of its game today, the recent earnings report releasead on Thursday showed possible indicators that its highly-profitable search engine business was already starting to wither.
Google's third quarter revenues shoot up 20 percent compared to the same period last year, the cost per click, or the mean cost the company gets paid whenever a user clicks on an advertisement went down 2 percent compared with last year's third quarter, and flat lined in the second quarter this year.
The cost per click went down dramatically for the past few years as mobile phones are gaining more popularity which have smaller screens making it difficult to put advertisements on.
Google did not disclose mobile phone advertisements revenue from desktop computer ad revenue.
On a positive note, paid clicks on advertisements went up 2 percent in the second quarter and 17 percent in the recent quarter compared to last year.
However, the rate of increase in paid clicks on advertisements was reportedly declining, which puts investors on the edge.
Even though Google has boosted several other offerings and products aside from its search business, it still remains to be the most profitable of all their ventures.
"Google's core search business is the best Internet business model ever created. Every other business Google is in looks pedestrian by comparison," said founder at strategic advisory firm centred on Internet companies, Clearmeadow Partners Jordan Rohan
Google reported sales of $26.52 billion in the third quarter. It Net revenues were reported to be $13.7 billion, an increase from $10.78 billion last year.
Google's Net income also went up 5.6 percent to $2.81 billion ($4.09 per share).
Google's profit, on the other hand, was $6.35 per share against the $5.63 in last year's third quarter.
However, the reports were reported to be below forecasted values, as Google's stock tumbled over 1 percent after in-hours trading.
