For those of you who use Apple devices, surely you are aware that the Safari browser made by Apple uses Google as its default search engine. Yes, it happened because Google has paid Apple to be the default search engine in Safari.
The costs incurred by Google are not small to encourage Apple users to use Google Search. And it is reported that Google is currently paying Apple hundreds of trillions for 2021.
Quoted from Ubergizmo, a report from Ped30 states that currently, Google has paid Apple US $15 billion (equivalent to ₦6.17 trillion) to Apple to become the default search engine in Safari for 2021.
The amount is even higher when compared to 2020 in which Google is reported to have paid US $10 billion to Apple for the agreement.
The report also estimates that the amount of money spent by Google could increase from US $18 to US $20 billion in 2022 since Google’s dependence on Apple is getting higher and Apple is aware of it.
But one of the reasons Google still wants to spend that big money is to prevent Microsoft from capitalising on the opportunity to make its own search engine, Bing, the default search engine on Apple devices.