During the Epic v. Google lawsuit, we learned that Samsung devices accounted for “half or more” of Google Play revenue as of early 2019. Google’s Vice President for Partnerships James Kolotouros revealed this yesterday (via Bloomberg).
Google pays Samsung a lot of money to use Google services on their phones. In 2020, Google agreed to pay Samsung $8 billion over 4 years to use Google Search, Google Assistant and the Google Play Store. Before that, Google tried to stop Samsung from promoting their own app store too much on their phones. Google said this was to help Android compete with Apple’s iPhone.
For other phone companies like OnePlus, Google proposed spending billions of dollars in 2020 and later years to make sure Google Play Store and important apps like Search could be on their phones. This included giving phone companies a cut of money Google makes from ads. OnePlus agreed and got:
- 20% of basic ad revenue
- 10% of optimized ad revenue
- 5% of money from Play Store purchases
- 15% of premier ad revenue
- 20% of money from Play Store purchases
Some phones get “Premier” treatment if they only install Google apps and no competitor apps. But other phones can still install other app stores. Google said these deals also force phone companies to provide at least 6 security updates per year.
