Is Google Recession-Proof?

The NYT posts the largest loss in history while Google's growth remained strong, most likely being the cause of their shares to rise the most since the IPO.

In a year, we'll know whether Google - and Internet search more generally - is recession-proof. It certainly has the makings of being so. After all, recessions cause people to become unemployed, meaning at the least they're at home. And what are they doing? Probably using Google to search for jobs, as well as to to engage in other forms of consumption.

That newspapers would suffer but Internet content thrive also says more about the income elasticity of demand and how it differs for those two things. The NYT is a dollar for Mon-Sat, and over five dollars on Sunday, and if you're out of a job, that's one of the things you'll likely cut back on. And this is even moreso the case in today's environment, where print media competes directly with online content which is mostly free. One will only reduce their use of the Internet during a recession if one discontinues their Internet service because of unemployment. But working against that effect is an opposite effect wherein Internet content might increase during a recession. For instance, one wonders whether blog posts in aggregate are pro-cyclical, and if so, then that would reinforce the substitution effect between print and online media. Because after all, the people unemployed now - many of them were blogging as a part-time gig. But now they have more free-time, and while they're searching, they're also producing more online content, so we might even see the quality and quantity of posts to go up during the recessions months. In which case, there would be even more attractive content available and competing therefore with print media like the NYT. All of which helps Google.