Google reportedly pays Samsung $3.5 billion a year to remain the default search on their devices
Over the weekend, news about the dollar amount Google pays to Apple every year to stay the default search engine on their devices was making the rounds. The price has gone up since the $1bil Google was paying Apple nearly 3 years ago. Today, it’s more like 3 billion dollars and is estimated to account for around 5% of Apple’s total operating profits for 2017.
That’s probably a little higher than what most people were thinking. It’s easy to assume that Apple just simply uses Google Search because it’s the best damn search engine in the world. While that may well be true, the mere prospect of using something like Bing forces Google to pay up, especially considering iOS devices account for more than half of Google’s mobile search revenue. They almost have no choice.
Even then, it’s still not as much as Google reportedly pays Samsung every year. How much is the biggest Android manufacturer in the world getting to keep Google as the default search? A reported $3.5 billion, beating out even Apple’s costly fees.
That probably sounds odd considering the vast majority of Samsung devices are running Android — Google’s own mobile operating system — but since Samsung is using a version of Android they built (complete with their own apps and services), they can still do with search as the see fit and Google has to pay through the nose for it.
The Investor | via Pocket Now