Baidu, China's most prominent search engine, has an ad revenue sharing agreement in place with Apple, according to a recent phone interview. There aren't any details on exactly how much of a cut Apple is getting, but apparently it's similar to what Baidu has in place with Google for their Android handset. An analyst estimated that Baidu distributes less than 10% of mobile ad revenue with manufacturers.
iOS 6 introduced many features tailored for China, including Baidu as a default option for web searches and Siri compatibility for language and local search. China got a fair bit of stage time at the WWDC keynote, including tie-ins with Youku's video service and the Twitter-esque Weibo network. There's even talk of new flagship stores and additional carrier support. The concerted effort is no surprise considering Apple's revenue in China tripled in the last quarter.
Google is a distant second place in Chinese search, and with Baidu stepping in with iOS 6, that gap stands only to widen. Assuming Apple and Google had a similar revenue-sharing model in place for Maps, I'm curious how much revenue Google's missing out on now that Apple has cooked up their own solution with some help from TomTom. .
Source: Bloomberg
