What always strikes me about Google's numbers is that they seem relatively small when taken in context of how large Google seems to be in its presence and perception. People talk about Google as a tech "giant" - but compare revenue numbers:
Google - $9B
Apple - $24B
IBM - $29B
Microsoft - $16B
Based on this in terms of being a "tech giant" Google would seem to be the underdog - yet they certainly aren't perceived or treated that way.
Revenue is a bad way to compare these companies, Apple is selling $1000 iphones and $2000+ laptops, which have a fairly high production cost. Whereas the margin on a PPC click would be massive.
Yes, I thought about comparing profit but actually I think revenue is more interesting because it represents to some extent the company's "weight", or spending power. Apple may spend a lot to manufacture their devices, but that spend also represents part of their huge influence in the computing landscape. It accounts for things like retail stores and massive advertising budgets which are enormously important. Sure if you only look at revenue then you over-estimate their influence but you equally under-estimate their influence if you only look at profit.
If you just compare to companies in the semiconductor industry or other various "behind the scenes" players, practically all of them have billions of dollars in revenue.
So Google earning $9 Billion isn't as big of a deal as everyone thinks it is when you put it in context of the whole high tech industry.
