Google to U.S. Economy: You’re Welcome
How much was Google worth to the United States economy in 2009?
$54 billion.
This according to the search sovereign itself in a paper released today quantifying its economic impact on the country, state by state.
In California, the company, which reported $23.7 billion in revenue last year, claims responsibility for more than $14 billion of economic activity, and in New York, $6.3 billion. These figures were calculated by adding the profit generated by businesses that use Google AdWords, the monies Google paid out to AdSense publishers and the in-kind grants the company doles out to nonprofits in each state.
“We conservatively estimate that for every $1 a business spends on AdWords, they receive an average of $8 in profit through Google Search and AdWords,” the company said in its report.
Which is something to think about–particularly for federal regulators concerned that Google’s growing market power is becoming anticompetitive. And that, I imagine, is the whole point of this exercise. What better way to counter perceptions that Google (GOOG) merits antitrust scrutiny than to highlight its positive effect on the national economy?
