Google might be the king of search right now, but it's not an easy task staying at the top. Aside from being efficient enough to convince users to come to them, Google also occasionally has to make sacrifices.
Sometimes, that's a $9 billion sacrifice to maintain its monopoly.
According to a Business Insider report, courtesy of Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall, Google will pay Apple approximately Rs 65,000 crore in 2018 in order to remain the Safari browser's default search engine. That number will also climb to $12 billion in 2019 (approximately Rs 87,000 crore).
If that seems like an unreasonable amount to pay for such intangible benefits, think again. After all, Safari is the default browser on everything from the iPhone, to the iPad and Mac. A lot of those users actually prefer Apple's browser to other options, meaning Google would in turn be generating a really high amount of ad revenue from searches. According to Goldman Sachs, the fee Google pays ends up being a fraction of what it earns.
"We believe Apple is one of the biggest channels of traffic acquisition for Google," the report said. The number has actually jumped significantly from the $3 billion Google paid last year. All of those are estimates, but there are actual court documents indicating Google did in fact pay Apple $1 billion in 2014 for its pride of place as search engine.
Again, none of this is something either company will comments on, even to confirm or deny. However, it seems like a fairly accurate estimate from analysts. Which is means if Google ever decides it doesn't need Apple to give it a special spot as default search engine, the iPhone maker is going to lose a significant chunk of its revenue.
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