American multinational technology company Apple is said to be working on its own search engine to replace Google. As of now Google pays Apple between 10 billion dollars and 12 billion dollars a year to be the default search engine on the iPhone and iPad. The amount reportedly accounts for 20 per cent of Apple’s Services revenue.
However the deal will soon expire and a reported antitrust case against Google by the US Department of Justice could prevent its extension. This is the US government’s biggest antitrust case in two decades.
Apple has already made moves for a transition away from Google. Its Applebot, which was first reported of in 2014, has been crawling the web ever since and has allegedly increased its rate substantially recently. Furthermore, in iOS 14's home screen search, Apple has begun to link directly to websites, bypassing Google entirely.
Nearly three years ago, Apple poached Google's Search and Artificial Intelligence chief John Giannandrea, who is now Senior VP or Machine Learning and AI Strategy at Apple.
One of the biggest reasons behind Apple creating a search engine is the company’s strong privacy stance and its stance against ad-funded services. However, if it were to develop a search engine, it would have to focus on advertisements to recoup the amount Google used to pay it every year.
In an open letter to its customers Apple CEO Tim Cook once said, 'Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers. We don’t monetize the information you store on your iPhone or in iCloud. And we don’t read your email or your messages to get information to market to you.'
As of now, it is unclear, on how Apple plans to bring its own search engine to life. Some reports claim that it will be a competitor to Google and will have its own website and app for phones.
The pact between Silicon Valley’s two most valuable companies was first inked 15 years ago.