Google reports 24% increase in net profit

Google has reported a 24% year on year increase in net profit for the second quarter of 2010, from $1.48 billion to $1.84 billion.

However, this was worse than expected on Wall Street, with analysts taking note of the sharp increase in the company’s operating expenses, which grew by one fifth.

The company saw its share price fall 4% in after hours trading following the announcement.

Google said that aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and AdSense partner sites, increased 15% year on year.

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, said: “Solid growth in our core business and very strong growth in our emerging businesses drove 24% revenue growth year over year.

“We saw strength in every major product area, as more and more traditional brand advertisers embraced search advertising and as large advertisers increasingly ran integrated campaigns across search, display, and mobile. We feel confident about our future, and plan to continue to invest aggressively in our core areas of strategic focus.”