Google pays Apple an enormous amount of cash every single year for a crazy yet logical reason.

Each Apple device is equipped with Apple's native browser, Safari, and Safari uses Google as its main search engine, like most browsers do.

But that doesn't come free.

In fact, Google pays Apple a hefty fee for the privilege.

Google pays Apple 36 percent of search engine revenue (on Safari) to remain the default search engine.

So you're looking at at least eight figures every year, but it could nine figures on a good year.

Some people argue that's a waste of money on the part of Google.

Because what is Apple gonna do if Google stops paying, switch to Bing? Really?

It's a good point.

But I guess it is also true that if Google stopped paying, Apple could perhaps find another search engine willing to pay up, possibly even more than Google.

It wouldn't change much for the user, you'd just have to switch from whatever other engine to Google when you set up your Apple device.