At this point, we are well aware of the deal that Google has been cutting with a lot of Android manufacturers and even Apple to ensure that its dominance remains. After finding out that the search engine giant has paid Samsung $8 billion over the course of four years, we now have information about other payments made to other Android OEMs.
While Samsung got the biggest piece of the pie, Google is actually responsible for paying other Android OEMs, too
We know Samsung, being the biggest Android player in the market, got rich thanks to Google, but all non-Samsung manufacturers also got paid a good chunk. The search engine giant proposed spending $2.9 billion in 2020, which turned to $4.9 billion this year, to ensure the availability of Search, Play, and other “critical apps” on these devices. In return, the revenue-sharing from Play Store and Search revenue would be shared by these manufacturers. This is being called the RSA 3.0, and the following are the percentages that were promised to OnePlus:
- 20 percent of “net basic ad revenue”
- 10 percent of “net optimized ad revenue”
- 5 percent of “net optimized Play transaction revenue”
- 15 percent of “net premier ad revenue”
- 20 percent of “net Play transaction revenue”
What’s more interesting is that Google even has an RSA 3.0 Premier tier. This consists of devices that are eligible for full revenue share, where manufacturers have to pre-install Google apps and are barred from installing competing apps. However, if you are not a part of this tier, you can install competing app stores like Galaxy Store.
From Google’s perspective, cutting these deals allows the company to require “no less than 6 security updates in a calendar year.” However, given the mountain of evidence against the search engine giant, it clearly looks like the company is in trouble, and sooner or later, something will be done about these practices that have been put in place.
Given the scale of this trial and the discoveries coming forward from all the participants, including Google, it is safe to say that there is a lot more to learn before a judgment can be passed. We are going to keep an eye out for more information and keep you posted about everything that we learn so stay tuned.