Internet Sector : Still Up

YAHOO!: Posts 9% Revenue Growth



For the first quarter of 2008, revenues stood at $1,818 mn, an increase of

9% compared to $1,672 mn for the same period previous year. Net profit for the

first quarter of 2008 stood at $542 mn compared to $142 mn for the same quarter

last year. Marketing services revenues stood at $1,572 mn for the first quarter

of 2008, a 7% increase. Revenues from owned and operated sites stood at $966 mn,

an increase of 18%. Revenues from affiliated sites stood at $606 mn, a decrease

of 7%, and fees revenues stood at $245 mn for the first quarter of 2008, an

increase of 21%.

During the quarter, Yahoo! and WPPs GroupM, 24/7 Real Media and WPP Digital,

entered into a strategic partnership that will enable WPP agencies to buy

digital display advertising across the Internet. Rogers Wireless and Yahoo!

entered into an agreement to provide oneSearch, mobile search service to Rogers

Wireless and Fido customers across Canada. Similarly, Yahoo! and McAfee entered

into a partnership to deliver a safer Web search experience through Yahoo!

Search by launching the new SearchScan feature with McAfee SiteAdvisor

technology.

Yahoo! also entered into a new strategic partnership with T-Mobile to bring

Yahoo!s industry-leading mobile services to millions of consumers in T-Mobiles

European footprint. Yahoo! and Major League Baseball, entered into a three-year

video and advertising partnership that includes access to out-of-market MLB

games on Yahoo! Sports. Flickr, a Yahoo! company and an online photo-sharing

community, launched video sharing under the name of Flickr Pro. Flickr pro

members can now upload personal video clips and share them with friends, family,

and the world.

Yahoo! also launched Yahoo! Go 3.0, Yahoo!s flagship all-in-one mobile

offering at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008. Zimbra, a Yahoo! company

working in open source, messaging, and collaboration software, launched ZimbraME

(Java mobile edition) client and source code for businesses.

Yahoo! and Computational Research Laboratories (CRL), a wholly owned

subsidiary of Tata Sons, entered into an agreement to jointly support cloud

computing research. As part of the agreement, CRL will make available to

researchers supercomputers with large processing power. Recently, Yahoo!

launched a new research lab in Haifa, Israel, and an expansion project of its

India R&D operations with the launch of Yahoo! Labs, Bangalore.

Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! acquired Maven Networks for

approximately $160 mn. The stock currently trades at $26.4.

Google: Growth is Still Scorching



Google specializes in Internet search and online advertising. The company is

based in Mountain View, California, and has approximate 15,916 full-time

employees. Google reported revenues of $5.19 bn for the quarter ended March 31,

2008, representing a 42% increase over $3.66 bn for the same quarter last year.

Net profit for the first quarter of 2008 stood at $1.31 bn as compared to $1 bn

for the first quarter of the previous year. Google owned sites generated

revenues of $3.40 bn, or 66% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2008.

Similarly, AdSense programs clocked in $1.69 bn, or 33% of the total revenues

and the international revenues totaled $2.65 bn, representing 51% of the total

revenues, for the first quarter of 2008.

During the quarter, Google I/O unveiled Google Earth API and browser plug-in,

as the latest member of the Maps API family. Google Earth API allows Web

developers to turn their Web pages into 3D map applications. Salesforce.com, a

software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) provider and

expanded their global strategic alliance to make it easier for companies to run

their business in the cloud with Salesforce for Google applications. Recently,

Google and Virgin Group announced the launch of Virgle, a jointly owned and

operated venture dedicated to the establishment of a human settlement on Mars.

A consortium of six international companies announced that they have executed

agreements to build a high-bandwidth sub-sea fiber optic cable linking the US

and Japan. The construction of the new Trans-Pacific infrastructure will cost an

estimated $300 mn. Similarly, the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF),

Omidyar Network, and Google.org announced a new $17 mn small- to

medium-enterprise investment company in India. Sprint and Google entered into a

partnership aimed at integrating Google applications and services for Sprint

customers.

Google launched the expansion of the Conversion Optimizer bid management

feature. The Conversion Optimizer is a new feature that allows advertisers to

meet their ROI objectives by automatically managing their cost-per-click bids

according to a maximum cost-per-acquisition goal. Also, Google launched a Web

security product that makes it easy and affordable for companies of all sizes to

provide Internet security to users in any location. Google Web Security for

Enterprise provides real-time malware protection and URL filtering with policy

enforcement and reporting. Currently, the stock trades at $ 575.

Baidu: Profits Touch $20 mn



Baidu is a leading Chinese search engine that provides search in Websites, audio
files, and images. Baidu reported revenue of $81.9 mn for the first quarter

ended March 31, 2008, an increase of 108.4% from the same quarter previous year.

Net profit stood at $20.9 mn, an increase of 71.5% from the same quarter

previous year. Online marketing revenue for the second quarter stood at $81.7 mn,

representing an increase of 108.5%. Active online marketing customers stood at

161,000 in the first quarter of 2008, representing an increase of 3.9% over the

previous quarter. Revenue per online marketing customer for the quarter of 2008

increased to $513, representing a y-o-y increase of 44%.

During the quarter, Baidu announced the launch of its Japanese language

search engine, http://www.baidu.jp, run by Baidus Japanese subsidiary. Also, in

a management change Jennifer Li was appointed as chief financial officer, with

effect from March 31, 2008, and Peng Ye was appointed chief operating officer,

with effect from April 25, 2008.

The company signed an agreement with China Netcom Group to jointly provide a

Baidu-powered Internet search page for CNC users. Recently, Baidu announced its

intention to launch an instant messaging service, called Baidu Hi. For the

second quarter ending June 30, 2008 Baidu expects to generate total revenue

ranging between $111-114 mn, representing a 94.4-99.4% increase from the

corresponding period in 2007. The stock currently trades at $337.75.