Google reports 28% profit increase boosted by ad sales

A raft of US tech giants reported their first quarter numbers on Thursday, with Google's parent company Alphabet seeing an impressive 28% rise in profits compared with the same period last year.

Boosted by increased ad sales from its video streaming site Youtube, its profit increased to $5.4bn, a higher rise than had been expected by analysts.

Despite recent concerns being expressed by advertisers about Youtube's ability to filter extremist content, revenue from advertising grew to $21.4bn, an increase from $18bn last year.

Alphabet's total revenue also grew for the period to $24.75bn, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $24.22bn according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Reuters.

"Our excellent results represent a terrific start to 2017, with revenues up 22% versus the first quarter of 2016 and 24% on a constant currency basis. We clearly continue to benefit from our ongoing investments in product innovation and have great momentum in our new businesses across Alphabet," said Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet.

Shares in Alphabet rose more than 4% in after-hours trading after the results were released.

Other US tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft and Intel also reported significant increases to their profits in the first quarter of 2017 after the close of Wall Street on Wednesday.