Google Paid Apple $1B to Keep Search Bar on iPhone

Post by ck425 » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 9:25 AM UTC

notatoad wrote: post #12

Animats wrote: post #11

Google also used to pay Mozilla to be the search engine there, until Yahoo outbid them. It's amazing that Google search, which is quite useful, has negative market value as content. In the cable TV world, there are channels cable systems pay to carry, such as ESPN, and channels that pay to be carried, such as the Jewelry Channel. How did Google end up in the latter category?

Cable TV is a fundamentally wrong analogy here, because there is only one search bar and only one default search provider, not a near-infinite number of channels to be filled. Being the default search engine on iPhone means you can generate a lot of revenue, and so it is a valuable position to sell. As you say, Google got outbid by Yahoo a couple years ago for Firefox. If Google weren't paying, apple would sell the s…

Post by ck425 » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 9:28 AM UTC

simonh wrote: post #21

danielhughes wrote: post #9

Therefore the iPhone share of total search ad spend is about $3B. This link puts the overall market (inclusive of Android) at roughly $9B in 2014. That makes sense if you assume iOS to represent roughly 1/3 of devices. http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Mobile-Account-More-than-Ha...

Isn't the $9B for all mobile advertising, not just mobile search advertising? According to a Glodman Sachs report for 2014, back then they estimated that iOS advertising accounted for 75% of Google's revenue on mobile. That would make the Android search ad space worth about $1B.

Post by zem » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 10:09 AM UTC

ck425 wrote: post #22

notatoad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cable TV is a fundamentally wrong analogy here, because there is only one search bar and only one default search provider, not a near-infinite number of channels to be filled. Being the default search engine on iPhone means you can generate a lot of revenue, and so it is a valuable position to sell. As you say, Google got outbid by Yahoo a couple years ago for Firefox. If Google weren't paying, apple would sell the s…

I don't use an iPhone so have to ask, can users not select the search engine they want to use? Oneplus tried to change the default search on their phones to Bing and the first thing I did was switch back to Google.

Post by Ntrails » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 10:49 AM UTC

zem wrote: post #26

ck425 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't use an iPhone so have to ask, can users not select the search engine they want to use? Oneplus tried to change the default search on their phones to Bing and the first thing I did was switch back to Google.

yes, but a vast number of users tend to stick with the defaults.

Post by lmm » Fri, Jan 22, 2016, 11:14 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #11

Google also used to pay Mozilla to be the search engine there, until Yahoo outbid them. It's amazing that Google search, which is quite useful, has negative market value as content. In the cable TV world, there are channels cable systems pay to carry, such as ESPN, and channels that pay to be carried, such as the Jewelry Channel. How did Google end up in the latter category?