Google already extracts a lot of hard, quantifiable value from Maps, partly in the form of valuable data, but also including ads and other promotions. This art

Google already extracts a lot of hard, quantifiable value from Maps, partly in the form of valuable data, but also including ads and other promotions. This article is about developer pricing for the Maps API. The article doesn't really delve into why Google is squeezing more money out of small app developers. The only plausible thing I can think of is to prevent losing ad revenue to apps that don't include promotions, but that seems like a stretch.