Because Google is a publicly traded company, it divulges revenue and other financial numbers every quarter. We often don’t hear anything about Android in these reports, though, which could be kind of frustrating to inquisitive fans of the platform. Well thanks to Oracle, it’s been revealed how much money Android has made for Google so far.
An attorney for Oracle has revealed that since Android’s launch in 2008, the platform has made Google $31 billion in revenue and $22 billion in profit. The information was spilled during a court hearing in the legal battle between Oracle and Google.
Since Google has never shared these types of numbers related to Android in the past, it should come as no surprise that the company is none too pleased that Oracle’s lawyer has spilled them now. Google has asked a judge to redact the info and seal parts of the public transcript, saying that the “extremely sensitive information” was marked “Attorney’s Eyes Only.” Google’s full statement is as follows:
“Google does not publicly allocate revenues or profits to Android separate and apart from Google’s general business. That non-public financial data is highly sensitive, and public disclosure could have significant negative effects on Google’s business.”
For reference, Google pulled in $18.7 billion in revenue in Q3 2015 and a total of $66 billion in revenue in all of 2014 (it hasn’t yet announced the total revenue for 2015). So yeah, Android isn’t a huge moneymaker for Google, but that shouldn’t come as a huge surprise since the OS is free. What Android does do is get people to use Google services, which then helps those services make money for Google.
