Last week Google announced its earnings for 2011, coming in at a rather impressive $39.7bn (£25bn). What was once a research project started in a garage has become an enormous company, but how do they earn all their money?
This infographic from Wordstream shows Google’s sources of revenue. In particular, take a look at the top industries which spend the most on Google ads. At no.1 it’s Finance & Insurance.
Click for a larger version:
![What Industries Contributed to Google's Billion in Revenues? [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://www.wordstream.com/images/google-earnings.png)
One interesting aspect of finance and insurance being top of the advertising spenders is that this is a market that Google appears to want to get into, with its sponsored credit card and mortgage ads, together with its purchase of financial comparison site BeatThatQuote here in the UK.
I’ve said all along that Google needs to be careful not to step on the toes of some of its biggest customers, but they either think that there’s room in the market for themselves, or that they can afford to annoy some advertisers, knowing they’ll make more money by offering the ads direct.