Google is one of the most important technology companies in the world, and does not hesitate to make considerable investments to maintain this status. In a recent report, it is claimed that during 2021 the company paid around $15 billion USD to Apple to keep its web browser as the default search tool on iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. This is a considerable increase from the $10 billion USD invested for this purpose in 2020.
Experts believe this is a trend that will prevail, so investment in Apple could increase to up to $20 billion by the end of 2022. These reports are based on the disclosure of some reports on Apple’s finances, which include Documents of Google’s traffic acquisition costs.
Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at financial firm Bernstein, notes that Google could be paying so that Microsoft can’t match or exceed its offerings. The expert does believe that the trend could change, considering variants such as possible regulations on this practice or that Google decides to change plans.
On the other hand, this practice is a cause for concern for users and privacy experts, who doubt that Apple does not collaborate with Google for the collection of all kinds of information from web browser users. Jane Horvath, Apple’s chief privacy officer, offered some statements about it: “Right now, Google is the most popular search engine. We do support Google but we also have built-in support for DuckDuckGo, and we recently also rolled out support for Ecosia”.
This investment by Google in Apple represents a significant amount. This is to some extent normal, as Apple has put emphasis on all possible services in order to show investors that it has other ways to increase revenue and profits beyond its popular devices sales.
To learn more about information security risks, malware variants, vulnerabilities and information technologies, feel free to access the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) websites.
He is a cyber security and malware researcher. He studied Computer Science and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2006. He is actively working as an cyber security investigator. He also worked for different security companies. His everyday job includes researching about new cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in enterprise security implementation.