Yahoo said today its quarterly profit doubled on Web advertising growth and it issued a healthy forecast for the current quarter, sending its shares up 5 per cent.
The strong results and higher outlook from the Internet media company, whose site Yahoo.com is the US leader in monthly visitors, topped Wall Street estimates and also boosted shares of rival Google.
"It looks like search revenue was particularly strong for Yahoo, which should bode well for Google," said Mark Mahaney, an analyst with American Technology Research.
Yahoo posted net income of $205 million, or 14 cents a share, in the first quarter, up from $101 million, or 7 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding payments that Yahoo makes to sites that carry its Web search ads, net revenue was $821 million, up 49 percent from $550 million.
Total revenue rose 55 per cent to $1.2 billion. Revenue from broadband subscriptions, online dating and other fee-based services also was ahead of company targets, rising 61 per cent from a year earlier to $149 million.
Fast-growing Web search advertising provides close to half of Yahoo's overall revenue and virtually all of Google's.
Web search is seen accounting for 41 per cent of all online ad spending in 2005, when total Web advertising is expected to grow 21 per cent year-over-year to $11.5 billion, according to eMarketer.
In addition to search ads, Yahoo also sells Web banners and ads that wiggle and float on screen. Yahoo said more advertisers were flocking to the Web, and advertisers already online were increasing their Internet spending.