Apple got $1 billion from Google in 2014 to keep 'Google Search' as the default search engine in iOS

It is no secret that Google pays Apple millions of dollars to keep Google Search as the default search engine on all iOS devices. However, it has always remained unclear as to how much money Google has actually had to pay to Apple.

Now, a recent court transcript of the Oracle vs. Google debate was obtained byBloomberg, which reveals that Google paid Apple a staggering $1 billion in 2014. The court transcript also reveals that “at one point in time the revenue share was 34 percent.” It was not clear if this percentage was kept by Google or was paid to Apple.

Since financial agreements between Apple and Google are very important and confidential in nature, both companies had requested to seal and redact the court transcript. Google even said that if these details were made public, it could severely affect its negotiation terms with other companies. Ultimately the transcript did vanish from the electronic court website at around 3 p.m. PST.

Many reports over the last couple of years had claimed that Google and Apple’s agreement over Google Search being the default search engine in iOS will end in 2015, and that Apple was in talks with Microsoft and Yahoo over setting their search engine as the default one in its devices. However, the deal never really materialised, with Google and Apple likely renewing their partnership for at least another year or so.

Do you think Apple switching over from Google Search to Yahoo Search or Bing as the default search engine in iOS will be a smart thing to do?

[Via Bloomberg]

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