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Yea but my argument was instead of paying Apple to be default search engine on iOS devices they could invest all that money in improving search technology which

Yea but my argument was instead of paying Apple to be default search engine on iOS devices they could invest all that money in improving search technology which would bring them more revenue from ads. Users care about UX so if Google is the best internet search engine out there they will use Google if not they will use something else. Now iOS users are presented with Google as their default search engine not because they think Google is the best but because Google pays to be default search engine on iOS devices.

gameman144 5y ago
Assuming they make a profit they could still do that. Say Google has five billion dollars, and they spend it all making Google the default on iOS. If this nets them six billion dollars, then they now have an extra billion to do anything that we might suggest.
- mrkramer 5y ago
  They have cash pile to do it but $8bn-$12bn a year only for Apple is a lot of money. I always thought big tech companies are super competitive. Paying Apple to be default search engine is like surrender without fighting. Android was and is huge success for Google but it seems like they want iOS users too or in another words the whole mobile userbase. I think Google still pays Mozilla to be default search engine on Firefox and this shows their monopolistic tendencies. I have nothing against monopoly it is the goal of every for profit company but you need to compete not pay to be default.
  - GoldenMonkey 5y ago
    80% of google’s mobile ad revenue happens on iOS. Google is dead without iOS.
toast0 5y ago
Like most questions of advertising effectiveness, this is one of those things that's hard to know without doing. They know how much the spend, and they know how much use and revenue they get from that placement, but it's hard to know how much use would move from the new default to them if they stopped paying. I'd guess this placement is revenue positive for them, but I don't know if there's public reporting on that level of detail. They may have some insight from where defaults changed in some regions on some platforms or some devices. Spending billions to improve search UX or whatever isn't exactly a spigot you just turn on, either. Also, it's not like spending the money on placement means there's no money to spend on other things, Google has the resources to do both.
- mrkramer 5y ago
  I think the most tragic thing that could happen for Google is Microsoft paying for Bing to be default search engine on iOS devices. Then users would most likely realise that Bing and Google are almost the same in terms of search quality and Google's brand would start to weaken. I think the brilliance of Google is their walled garden or family of apps they built around search e.g.(Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Images, Books etc.)

gameman144 5y ago

Assuming they make a profit they could still do that. Say Google has five billion dollars, and they spend it all making Google the default on iOS. If this nets them six billion dollars, then they now have an extra billion to do anything that we might suggest.

mrkramer 5y ago
They have cash pile to do it but $8bn-$12bn a year only for Apple is a lot of money. I always thought big tech companies are super competitive. Paying Apple to be default search engine is like surrender without fighting. Android was and is huge success for Google but it seems like they want iOS users too or in another words the whole mobile userbase. I think Google still pays Mozilla to be default search engine on Firefox and this shows their monopolistic tendencies. I have nothing against monopoly it is the goal of every for profit company but you need to compete not pay to be default.
- GoldenMonkey 5y ago
  80% of google’s mobile ad revenue happens on iOS. Google is dead without iOS.

toast0 5y ago

Like most questions of advertising effectiveness, this is one of those things that's hard to know without doing. They know how much the spend, and they know how much use and revenue they get from that placement, but it's hard to know how much use would move from the new default to them if they stopped paying. I'd guess this placement is revenue positive for them, but I don't know if there's public reporting on that level of detail. They may have some insight from where defaults changed in some regions on some platforms or some devices. Spending billions to improve search UX or whatever isn't exactly a spigot you just turn on, either. Also, it's not like spending the money on placement means there's no money to spend on other things, Google has the resources to do both.

mrkramer 5y ago
I think the most tragic thing that could happen for Google is Microsoft paying for Bing to be default search engine on iOS devices. Then users would most likely realise that Bing and Google are almost the same in terms of search quality and Google's brand would start to weaken. I think the brilliance of Google is their walled garden or family of apps they built around search e.g.(Gmail, Maps, YouTube, Images, Books etc.)