In Google’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit, a key figure was incorrectly revealed: the search giant pays 36% of the advertising revenue generated in Safari to Apple. This information was supposed to remain confidential, but a Chicago scientist called to the stand included it in his testimony, Bloomberg reports. Both Apple and Google try to limit the number of specific items that are publicly disclosed as part of this test, and this percentage is one of the most accurate numbers we’ve been able to get to date.
Image MacGeneration.
We don’t know exactly how much Apple makes every year thanks to the agreement with Google, but for 2021 alone we were talking about $18 billion. That’s a huge sum and we now know that the share taken by Apple includes all the advertising revenue that Google generates in its web browser. 36% is a significant proportion, even higher than the 30% that Apple requires from developers who want to sell in its app stores, and the result of long negotiations, as one can imagine.
The American justice system could force Google to abandon this agreement and thereby lose its place as the default search engine in Safari. It is the most popular mobile web browser in the United States and the target of the US Department of Justice. The exact numbers are crucial to determining whether Google has abused its dominant position in the search engine market, and it makes sense that the company would not want to publish them. As for Apple, it is an important source of income that the company probably does not want to emphasize too much, since it does not really fit its marketing message about respect for privacy…