Google UK leap powered by pound

Chief financial officer Patrick Pichette said Google was “pretty pleased with the momentum” in Britain, its biggest market after America and responsible for one tenth of group sales.

UK revenues rose 15% on an underlying basis, stripping out foreign-exchange differences, which was an improvement on the previous quarter.

Google’s UK turnover has doubled in four years, making it Britain’s biggest media company by ad revenues, although it controversially processes most of its sales in Ireland to avoid UK corporation tax. Worldwide revenues rose 22% to $15.96 billion in the last quarter but profits rose only slightly to $3.42 billion against $3.23 billion a year earlier as it hired an extra 2200 staff.

Pichette said Google continues to invest in its own fibre broadband network as it seeks to “build the demand” for people to use more online services. The company is in talks with 34 cities in America.

Reports suggest Google is also looking at owning a fibre network in the UK which could be a threat to BT and Virgin Media.

Nikesh Arora, Google’s chief business officer and a former UK boss, is quitting for Japan’s Softbank.