It is not a secret that Google pays millions of dollars each year to Apple so that the Mountain View search engine is activated by default in Safari and maintain an advantage over its competitors, since Apple remains the third company that sells the most phones in the world.
According to the analyst of Bernstein, Toni Sacconaghi, Google would have paid $ 10 billion to Apple during 2020. However, they estimate that this figure will rise to at least $ 15 billion during fiscal year 2021.
Why is Google paying so much money to be the default search engine?
As mentioned above, Apple is the third largest selling phone brand in the world. According to the latest market analysis from Counterpoint Research, the world’s four best-selling phones are iPhones.
Google pays Apple for users of these iPhones using Safari to search through Google. In this way, the company can collect this search data and offer personalized advertising, which is one of its main businesses.
With Android, Google is obliged to allow users in European Union countries to choose the default browser from the initial configuration of the phone, in the Apple ecosystem this condition does not exist.
On the other hand, the general iOS user does not usually make many modifications to the phone’s configuration because Apple focuses on making the experience simple, so although the user can change the default search engine, it is likely that the vast majority do not.
Google doesn’t want Microsoft to win a deal
According to Toni Sacconaghi, one of the reasons why Google might be willing to pay Apple more and more money for this agreement is due to competition, as Microsoft would be closely monitoring this agreement. For that reason, the money that Apple could receive from Google could reach as much as $ 20 billion next year.