14 DAY TRIAL // iPhones come with Google as the default search engine in Safari, and this is only the result of the Mountain View-based search company paying a fortune every year to Apple.
Analyst Rod Hall at Goldman Sachs claims it costs Google $9 billion every year to remain the default search engine on the iPhone, and the amount is likely to increase very soon. Google could pay no less than $12 billion next year, if the analyst forecast is accurate.
“We believe this revenue is charged ratably based on the number of searches that users on Apple’s platform originate from Siri or within the Safari browser,” the analyst was quoted as saying.
Huge fee per iPhone user
As reported by CultOfMac, Google pays a lot of money to be the default iPhone search engine when looking at the existing user base of Apple’s smartphone.
According to recent estimates, there were 715 million iPhones on the market in 2017, and the number probably increased substantially after the release of iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus. However, a rough estimate indicates that Google may pay around $10 a year for every iPhone user.
And of course, there is absolutely no guarantee that paying that much to be the default search engine would actually convince users to stick with Google.
iPhone users can still change the default search engine in Safari, and it all takes is a few clicks. Go to Settings > Safari > Search engine and choose one of the other options offered by Apple, including Bing or even DuckDuckGo.
However, given that Google continues to struggle to remain the default search engine on iPhones means most customers use its service, so expect the partnership to continue in the coming years as well if this is the case.