Here is how much Google pays Apple and Android device makers to be the default search engine

by Victor Hristov / Oct 10, 2017, 7:59 AM

Here is how much Google pays Apple and Android device makers to be the default search engine

Google is paying more and more to have its search box on various devices and just last year, it paid a record $7.2 billion in so called "traffic acquisition costs" to Apple and Android phone makers.

At the current rate, this accounts for 11% of Google revenues, up from 7% just a few years back.

And there are risks that the company will need to pay even more in the future as Europe is bound to step up regulation.

Apple has just recently replaced Bing with Google in iOS 11 in several places in the interface, so that more and more search traffic goes to Google. And while Google parent company Alphabet does not disclose a break-down of how much money goes to what company, analysts believe that a huge chunk of those $7.2 billion goes to Apple.

Interestingly, Google's new hardware efforts could actually minimize those "traffic acquisition costs". With its own hardware taking a bigger slice of the market, Google will need to worry about less iPhones being in use, and less money paid in traffic fees.

source: Bloomberg

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14 Comments

1. worldpeace

Posts: 3135; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

And if google didn't pay, what will they use as default search engine? Bing? lol

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:07 AM 11

3. fyah_king unregistered

"isearch!":)

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:22 AM 1

4. trojan_horse

Posts: 5868; Member since: May 06, 2016

Assuming most people would manually set Google to be the default search engine.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:27 AM 1

5. hemedans

Posts: 755; Member since: Jun 01, 2013

dont under estimate power of average user, Yahoo nearly succeed when they change default search engine of Firefox to yahoo. they gain more than 1% of US Search Engine Marketshare in 3 Month. Just imagine in Russia and Balkan countries Oem use Yandex, China use Baidu, West countries use Bing etc, You think Google will remain the same?

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:29 AM 3

7. toukale

Posts: 632; Member since: Jun 10, 2015

Don't waste your time, lots of folks here thinks the world revolve around them and their thinking. They don't understand how the real world operates outside of their little bubble. They don't understand the power of the default to 80% of the users.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:41 AM 1

12. manzer

Posts: 57; Member since: Apr 05, 2014

So the joke goes: 3 languages= trilingual, 2 languages= bilingual, 1 language=American

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 12:24 PM 0

8. worldpeace

And where is yahoo now? And yes, Yandex is the most popular search engine in Russian, while China is the most popular in china, because they can provide more relevant to their target users. (and android phone in China didn't use google service) And Bing is default search engine in win7, 8, 10 (via start menu and cortana), edge, and IE. They even promote Bing Reward that give you gift card, or other coupon for using their search engine. Even with all that, Google still lead with huge margin.. (and manually change default)

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 9:25 AM 2

11. hemedans

my point is average user cant change search engine, if Google allow competitors to be dafault in All browsers and other online services then it will hurt them, thats why they spend those billions. just take example my dad use search engine to enter website, if he want to visit facebook, he just type "facebook" in search box, then result came and click first one and enter facebook. for that use what is the difference between google, bing, yandex and baidu?

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 10:06 AM 1

6. KonSkl

Posts: 23; Member since: Jun 03, 2016

either you believe it or not, many people just don't bother/know or can't be arsed to change search engines. In techie sites you talk mostly to enthusiast market share and that part of the market share would of course use google.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:38 AM 1

10. piyath

Posts: 2445; Member since: Mar 23, 2012

Yes, Bing.. Apple has been using Bing for years as their default search engine and nobody complained. If google didn't pay they lose a significant amount of exposure to rich Americans who use iPhones and various other Apple devices.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 9:55 AM 1

2. libra89

Posts: 2281; Member since: Apr 15, 2016

Hmm this is interesting.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 8:08 AM 0

9. dimas

Posts: 3369; Member since: Jul 22, 2014

I use bing everyday. Though limited, searching is fast and useful too. I don't want it to die like yahoo, competition should always be there in evrry business.

posted on Oct 10, 2017, 9:30 AM 2

13. domfonusr

Posts: 1085; Member since: Jan 17, 2014

Previous articles stated that Apple's cut is approximately $3 billion and Samsung's cut is up to $3.5 billion. This means that everybody else splits up a total of no less than $700 million, which is a tiny cut compared to Samsung or Apple.