Google Estimated to Pay Samsung $3.5 Billion in Licensing Fees

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 16 Aug 2017

Galaxy S8+ plus - front view

An analyst report from earlier this week suggested that Google could be paying Apple as much as $3 billion to remain the stock search engine on Safari for iPhone and iPad. Now, news report originating from Korea suggests that Google will reportedly be paying Samsung even higher licensing fees of $3.5 billion.

Like Apple, Samsung has also seen its licensing revenue increase in recent years due to its strong smartphone sales. The amount has been estimated based on the licensing fees that Google is paying to Apple this year to remain the stock search engine on iPhones.

On Samsung devices, the company shows the Google Search widget right up front on the home screen which holds considerably more value than just being the default search engine in Safari on iOS. Apple’s licensing fees from Google could have been considerably higher if it would have decided to make Google the stock search engine for Spotlight as well.

Samsung’s licensing discussions are being headed by David Eun, president of Samsung Next, who had previously served as the VP of content partnership at Google.

Despite paying billions in licensing fees, Google expects to more than make-up for it through ad revenue that it will be generating by remaining the default search engine on Samsung devices.

[Via The Investor]