Google Has Paid Apple Billions To Remain Default Ios Search Engine

That’s up from the $1 billion Google paid Apple in 2014 to stay the default search engine on iOS devices like the iPhone. And if that sounds like a lot to you, you’re not alone, since according to the Bernstein report it’s not chump change even to a big, famously cash-rich company like Apple: The report lays out two perspectives on the situation for Google. One is that the search giant might get sick of making these giant payments to Apple, and suffer no consequences for it, since Apple would have no real incentive to replace Google with any less popular (and arguably less effective) search engine as its default. On the flip side, though, is the fact that Google gets roughly half of its mobile search revenue from Apple iOS devices, a figure which could be threatened if Apple decided to play hardball. If Google keeps paying, it’s described as a “win-win,” since Apple keeps getting these huge fees and Google’s search engine dominance becomes that much more impossible for any competitor to crack.