Google May Pay Apple $9 Billion to Remain Default Search Engine on iPhones

Google is reportedly paying Apple a whopping $9 billion (about Rs. 65,000 crores) in 2018 to remain the default search engine for iPhone's Safari browser on iOS, the media reported. Back in 2013 and 2014, the sum was pegged to be $1 billion (about Rs. 7,251 crores), and analysts in 2017 said the figure had swollen to $3 billion (about Rs 21,750 crores).

Citing Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall, a Business Insider report claimed this number could go up to $12 billion (about Rs. 87,000 crores) in 2019. In the investor note, Hall reportedly wrote, "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." He also believes that Apple is among the biggest sources of traffic acquisition for Google.

While Apple uses Google as the default search engine in Safari on iOS devices such as iPhones and iPads, the company also uses Bing in various other places such as searching the web via Siri.

Apple has been touting that services will be a huge area of growth for the company, as sales of its hardware start to peak. Apple Music has seen steady growth since its inception back in 2015. While the free iCloud storage tier still remains at just 5GB, more users are now willing to pay the monthly fee to get access to more storage.