It’s emerged that Google pays Apple a massive chunk of its advertising revenue from Safari web searches.
Kevin Murphy, an economics professor at the University of Chicago, accidentally let slip that Google paid Apple a whopping 36% of any advertising revenue it earned from web searches through Apple’s own Safari web browser.
As reported by Bloomberg, the professor was supposed to be testifying in Google’s defence at the web giant’s ongoing antitrust trial. However, the precise figure of Google’s ad revenue payments to Apple were supposed to remain confidential, with Google’s main litigator visibly cringing when the stat was divulged.
It’s worth pointing out that neither Google nor Apple wanted to air the dirty laundry of their private deal. For Google, it obviously doesn’t look good for its case that it’s paying so much money to one of its key competitors to maintain its search advantage.
For Apple, it doesn’t cast the company’s supposedly pure stance on data privacy and advertising intrusiveness in a particularly positive light. It’s not willing to dirty its hands with such practices, but it’s seemingly happy to rake in millions from a company that does – and for which it is often criticised by Apple.
It’s been known for some time that Google pays Apple a fortune to remain the default search engine on Safari. One law suit filed early last year even claimed that Google paid Apple to stay out of the web search game.
By some estimates, Google’s payments represent a fifth of Apple’s annual profits. With enemies like these, who needs friends?
