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Google Paid Apple $1 Billion in 2014 to Remain Default iOS Search Engine: Report

Google Paid Apple $1 Billion in 2014 to Remain Default iOS Search Engine: Report

By Manish Singh | Updated: 22 January 2016 19:34 IST

It's no secret that Google and Apple don't see eye to eye on many things. So any business between them understandably involves a lot of cash. According to a court document, Apple received a sum of $1 billion (roughly Rs. 6,770 crores) from the Internet giant in 2014 to make Google the default search engine on the iPhone and iPad.

Rumours about how much Apple charges Google to allow its rival's search engine have been circulating for years, but $1 billion figure is still above many people's expectations. The figure was observed in a transcript of court proceedings from Oracle's lawsuit against Google, reports Bloomberg. To be noted is that this is not the first time the $1 billion figure has been quoted for Apple and Google's 2014 search deal.

The two companies have an agreement under which Apple gets a cut on the revenue Google makes through the Apple devices. The exact terms of the agreement aren't known, however, according to a Google witness, Apple at one time charged 34 percent of the revenue share. The transcript was soon after removed from electronic court records, following a filing by both Google and Apple to seal and redact the transcript as it contained 'highly confidential' information.

The court proceedings also revealed that Google generated a revenue of about $31 billion and profit of $22 billion (roughly Rs. 148,872 crores) since the release of Android. The operating system was first made available as a commercial product in 20018.

Oracle has been after Google since 2010, claiming that Android uses Java's API without its permission. In 2012, a judge found that Google did not infringe on Oracle's patents. The decision was, however, reversed in 2014 in Oracle's favor. Google has never denied of utilising Java APIs in Android, though it insists that APIs cannot be copyrighted. In the meanwhile, Google has announced that it will soon ditch the controversial Java API to use OpenJDK, which while still is made by Oracle, is open source.

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