Google announces record-breaking Q4 results, Google Plus has reached 90 million users

Google reported its fiscal results for the last 2011 quarter and for the year 2011 as a whole. The Q4 results were a record for the search giant, with revenue topping the $10 billion milestone for the first time.

CEO Larry Page was also proud with their social network, Google Plus. It reached 90 million users, more than double the 40 million users reported in October. This also puts them on track to reach the predicted 100 million by the end of February (a prediction that sees Google Plus reaching 400 million users by the end of 2012).

Let’s start with the financial results. Google’s revenue for the full year 2011 went up by 29%. For just Q4, revenue reached the record $10.58 billion (a 25% increase year over year). Operating income for Q4 was 33% of revenues ($3.51 billion, up from $2.98 billion in Q4 2010) and net income was $2.71 billion.

During the last quarter of 2011, almost half of Google’s revenues came from the international market (47%). The UK alone accounted for 10% of revenues.

The number of clicks on Google served ads went up by 34% compared to last year’s fourth quarter, while the cost per click fell by 8%.

Here are a few other numbers – at the end of 2011, Google was sitting on a $44.6 billion pile of cash, their effective tax rate for Q4 of 2011 was 21% and their hired about 900 new people in that same quarter.

For the full year, Google’s revenues reached $37.905 billion with total advertising revenues reaching $36.531 billion. Net income for the year was $9.737 billion. You can check out the full table of information over here.

All these results weren’t enough to impress Wall Street, which expected the search giant to do better. Shares dropped 9% in after-hours trading as a result.

Anyway, back to Google Plus. According to comScore, Google’s social network had 67 million unique visitors in November, 15.9 million of which came from the US. In December, the number of US visitors was 20.6 million.

Larry Page also claims 60% of Google Plus users use a Google service each day (it’s not clear if he meant any Google service or just G+) and 80% use a service at least once a week.

There was no Android-related info in the press release.

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