Google paid Apple $1 bn to be default search bar in 2014

Court documents from Oracle's copyright lawsuit against Google have revealed that the internet search giant paid around $1 billion to Apple in 2014 for making its search bar the default option on iOS.

Bloomberg reported that in a public transcript of ongoing court proceedings, an Oracle lawyer was quoted as saying Google paid out the funds under a revenue sharing agreement with Apple.

Terms of the contract were not clear, the amount was apparently handed over as a percentage of the revenue generated through iOS device searches.

Though a figure of 34 per cent was mentioned, a figure that was redacted from electronic court records, it is not clear whether it is Apple that received the 34 per cent, or whether it was the amount retained by Google, Bloomberg reported.

According to commentators, the report confirmed years of speculation over the benefits Apple reaped by allowing Google to process - and glean data from - iOS searches. According to a 2013 estimate, Apple took in over $1 billion from Google search referrals, though neither company had commented officially on those numbers.

Google Inc's Android operating system had generated $31 billion revenue and $22 billion in profit, a lawyer for Oracle Corp told a court while disclosing figures Google said were not meant to be made public.

Google was accused by an Oracle attorney in the case, of using its Java software to develop Android, but without paying for it. According to Google's court filing, the lawyer based her statement on information derived from confidential internal financial documents.

Google made money from Android in two ways, advertisements supplied by Google shown on Android phones, and revenue Google took from its mobile app store, Google Play.

Google urged a San Francisco federal judge on 20 January to redact and seal portions of the public transcript of last week's hearing, saying that the information had been improperly disclosed from documents that were marked ''Attorney's Eyes Only.''

''Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google's general business,'' the company said in the filing. ''That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google's business.''