The Internet's Biggest Revenue Generators

Another earnings season is behind us, and while it's clear that more and more Internet companies are crossing over the line into profitability, most continue to operate at a loss.

Yet is seems hardly a quarterly report goes by without a company trumpeting record revenue growth. Indeed, failure to at least double revenues over the year-ago quarter can send a younger company's stock into a tailspin, for investors seeking the unlimited growth opportunity promised by the Internet tend to recoil from anything hinting of a plateau.

Even mature companies face incredible pressure to maintain healthy revenue growth. That's one of the reasons, I believe, why shares of networking giant Cisco Systems were down in Wednesday's trading despite Q3 revenue growth of 55 percent over the year-ago quarter, which slightly topped the 53 percent growth rate in Q2. The company also warned that parts shortages could hurt sales and earnings going forward.

Cisco's revenue growth numbers may lack that extra digit expected of Internet companies, but make no mistake: CSCO is far and away the revenue leader among all Internet companies. Its $4.9 billion in Q3 sales is nearly three times the $1.8 billion in recent quarterly revenue reported by runner-up America Online.