Google's Payment to Apple Revealed in Antitrust Case: 36% of Revenue from Safari Searches

It has been revealed in the antitrust case against Google that Apple receives 36 percent of the revenue generated by Google from searches made via the Safari browser. This information was disclosed by a witness testifying against the tech giant. Previously, both Google and Apple had tried to keep details of their agreement confidential.

Bloomberg reported that Google's chief litigator, John Schmidtlein, had a visible reaction when economic expert Kevin Murphy revealed the percentage of revenue that Apple receives from Google. Google had argued earlier in a lawsuit that disclosing details of its agreement with Apple would harm its competitive position.

While the exact amount of advertising revenue that Google generates from searches on Safari is unknown, it is estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars. In 2022, Google's total revenue was close to $280 billion, with the majority coming from advertisements. It has long been rumored that Google pays Apple billions of dollars to ensure its search engine remains the default option. In 2021, it was reported that Google paid $18 billion to be the default search engine on Safari. Additionally, it was recently revealed that Google had requested Apple to make changes to the Search app on iOS devices back in 2018.

The relationship between Google and Apple, specifically regarding search revenue, has been a topic of interest in the antitrust case against Google. The details of their agreement and the amount of money involved have shed light on the inner workings of these tech giants. As the case continues to unfold, more information is likely to come to light about the businesses practices of these two companies.