Pseudo-Transcript Of Google Earnings Call
I’ve just finished listening to the Google Q2 conference call and what follows is a pseudo-transcript of what I heard. In all but two cases, you’ll not be reading exact quotes. Nevertheless, I hope the post gives you a good idea of what was said. Below, read about the latest Google views on working with content partners, tagging/structured data, click fraud and Google’s rapidly expanding work force.
Again, what follows are extended notes of what I found interesting as I listened in. It’s far from a complete transcript. If you want to hear the entire call (and find out what I don’t cover) a replay is available here.
Click Fraud mentioned in the disclaimer at the beginning of the call as something that might change Google financial results in the future.
ES=Eric Schmidt
ES: All business very strong (U.S./International)
ES: We don’t give guidance but Schmidt reminds listeners that Q3 is a slower quarter, seasonality issues
ES: “We see very big opportunity ahead of us.”
George Reyes (GR) discusses the numbers
GR: Many new talented engineers joining Google this summer
GR: GR: R&D spending was $96 million in Q2 vs. $79 million in Q1
GR: Expect to see continuing growth in R&D
GR: 4,183 full-time employees at end of Q2 2005. 3,482 at end of Q1 2005. 2292 employees as of 6/30/04
GR: Reitertates click fraud has never been a material problem for Google and we’re working hard to make sure it stays that way
LP=Larry Page
LP: New Services: Google Maps (integraton with satellite), Google Maps API, Google Earth, Google Personalized Home Page, My Search History. Mentions Google Web Accelerator. We want to make more video available online that’s why we started upload program. Google Video Playback. Google Print and Library programs progress. We take a conservative approach on how we handle other peoples content. Concern is not unexpected. It’s a healthy part of Google’s pioneering work. “We will continue to consult and work with our industry partners to make sure we fairly balance the needs and rights of content providers with the value we believe these new forms of content will offer to users.”
SB=Sergey Brin
SB: We have been working to meet the needs of brand focused advertisers
SB: We have opened new offices in Brazil and Mexico
SB: Latin America is an important market for us
SB: New office in Shanghai
SB: Euro partnerships with Thomson and T-Mobile
SB: Awarded $20 million in Founder’s Awards in Q2
ES: We are the same core company a year after the IPO
ES: Organization and ACCESS to info is part of our mission
ES: Google is innovating as lives move online
ES: We are going to be the leading providing of access to the world’s information.
ES: We are working on ways to pay video content owners, working to develop DRM solutions. New stuff in the next 12 months.
ES: Changing minimum bid requirements means better quality
GR: International is performing well, would not break-out numbers
SB: We are focusing on building the local business like we built the web search business
SB: On RSS and Tagging. We are excited by all the web developments going on out there including RSS since because these are great things that can improve our comprehensiveness and freshness. “You [conference call participant] mentioned tagging and the various forms of more precise user generated kind of structured data that we’re able to get, I think the better the search experience will be able to produce. Now, today, the amount of the latter that’s out there is fairly small but it’s indicative of potential in the future.”
SB: Orkut’s growth in Brazil is phenomenal
LP: We have a significant market share in China. Tremendous opportunity in China
LP: Getting significant use of mobile services. New stuff coming in the next few months
SB: Large percentage of local searches happening on our main site
LP: All of our services are open to other companies
GR: Q2 and Q3 are difficult quarters. Last year Q3 masked by our IPO
SB: Advertising: we started to support richer media types (ie image ads)
LP: Maps and Google Earth exceeded expectations. RSS support for home page? Not aware of details
ES: Google Wallet? Market well served by PayPal. Working to ways to make merchants even happier
LP: We have interesting meetings about monetization. Make everyone happy.
GR: We made an explicit decision to incease hiring this quarter
ES: We have found ways to stay focused on users and innovation. We are just beginning to make it happen.