Apple may have been paid $9.5B by Google in 2018 to stay default Safari search option

Google may have paid Apple close to $9.5 billion in 2018 to remain the default search engine in Safari, Goldman Sachs analysts said in an investor memo this week.

That would account for over 20 percent of Apple's services revenue, the memo indicated according to CNBC. Apple doesn't break down its services results, which also include money from businesses like Apple Music, iTunes, and the App Store.

Google's payments combined with Apple's cut of App Store sales made up 51 percent of 2018 services revenue, and 70 percent of gross profits, the analysts calculated.

Nevertheless, Google's share of the services segment is expected to decline. To add "mid to high single digits growth" back to services revenue, it's argued Apple will need a successful launch of a rumored subscription bundle including Apple Music, Apple News Magazines, and an unnamed video streaming service. The package should arrive in the first half of the year, possibly as soon as March or April.

Publishers are allegedly resisting Magazines however, since Apple is demanding half of subscription revenue while refusing to share as much customer data as publications are used to.

Multiple research firms have predicted that Apple will transition towards becoming more of a services company. That could prove critical to its survival — the global smartphone industry is beginning to plateau and even decline, and Apple is still overwhelmingly dependent on the iPhone. In the December quarter iPhone revenues fell 15 percent year-over-year, and they aren't expected to resume growth until new models ship this fall.

Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty recently argued that an Apple service bundle could push the company back to a $1 trillion valuation.

19 Comments

payeco 581 comments · 17 Years

About 5 years ago

On its own, Apple’s payout from Google would be a Fortune 300 company and its margins are literally 100%.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

Gotta wonder why Google pays Apple for this. Are people so stupid they can’t figure out how to make Google the default? Don’t most people actually want Google as their search engine. I see posts on the Apple discussion forums from users who want to know how to change Safari back to Google when they accidentally set it to Bing. Don’t see many asking how to get rid of Google. I mean it’s great money for Apple but why?

lkrupp said:

Gotta wonder why Google pays Apple for this. Are people so stupid they can’t figure out how to make Google the default? Don’t most people actually want Google as their search engine. I see posts on the Apple discussion forums from users who want to know how to change Safari back to Google when they accidentally set it to Bing. Don’t see many asking how to get rid of Google. I mean it’s great money for Apple but why?

Obviously Google’s own research indicates enough people would just use whatever the default is or Google wouldn’t pay them this money. They’re not forking over $10 billion a year to one of their arch rivals out of generosity.

Google pays Mozilla a substantial amount of money to keep Google the default search engine in Firefox. If you’re using Firefox, you’re savvy enough to know how to change your default search engine. There is just a substantial amount of people that don’t care and will use the default.

Have you used another search engine lately? Duck Duck Go is pretty damn good.

hexclock 1316 comments · 10 Years

Easy money, and the first setting I change when I install the OS new.

seanismorris 1624 comments · 8 Years

lkrupp said:

Gotta wonder why Google pays Apple for this. Are people so stupid they can’t figure out how to make Google the default? Don’t most people actually want Google as their search engine. I see posts on the Apple discussion forums from users who want to know how to change Safari back to Google when they accidentally set it to Bing. Don’t see many asking how to get rid of Google. I mean it’s great money for Apple but why?
Quid pro quo.

Apple also doesn’t stop the auto play of ads (videos). The unmentioned deal that makes Google a bundle.