„The Mystery of Apple, Inc.’s One-Time Services Boost“
Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) reported fiscal fourth quarter earnings last week, and it was a blockbuster release both in terms of the September quarter as well as guidance for the December quarter. However, there was one big question mark buried within the release: a one-time positive adjustment of $640 million that was booked in the services segment.
Total services revenue jumped 34% to hit a new quarterly record of $8.5 billion, and $640 million is nothing to sneeze at, representing 7.5% of services revenue in the quarter. Apple’s explanation was incredibly vague, merely stating: „Services revenue in the fourth quarter of 2017 included a favorable one-time adjustment of $640 million due to a change in estimate based on the availability of additional supporting information.“ […]
Investors don’t have confirmation, but all signs point to that $640 million adjustment coming from Google.
Bestätigt ist: Im Jahr 2014 zahlte Google eine Milliarde US-Dollar an Apple um auf iOS die Standard-Suchmaschine zu sein. Seit September 2017 gilt: Wer über Siri sucht und dabei Weblinks angeboten bekommt, erhält nun Ergebnisse von Google (und nicht wie bisher von Microsofts Suchmaschine Bing).
Googles Quartalszahlen, die ebenso in der letzten Woche veröffentlicht wurden, weisen die höchsten „Traffic Acquisition Costs“ auf, die der Suchmaschinen-Anbieter bislang in einem Quartal investierte. Traffic Acquisition Costs – kurz TAC – sind Kosten, die man für Partner ausgibt, damit sie Kunden zu Google bringen.
Google sagte dazu:
And on your TAC question, as I indicated in the opening comments. There are a couple of drivers here. One is changes in partner agreements. And I think the main point is we’re very pleased with our strong partnerships across the mobile ecosystem. And the other was the ongoing shift to mobile, which we’ve talked about a lot and the fact that it carries higher TAC because more mobile searches are channeled through paid access points. (Hervorhebung von mir)
Kurzum: In Mobile steckt (weiterhin) das Wachstum und Google bleibt keine andere Wahl als Apple für diese Voreinstellung – die jeder Nutzer ändern könnte, es anscheinend aber nicht tut – zu bezahlen.
