Ever wonder how Google makes money from its Android mobile operating system? It makes money through ads and also through the sale of apps in which Google takes a cut from whatever developers are making. So with Android having launched back in 2008, how much money has Google made in the past 8 years?According to a report from Bloomberg, it has been revealed that Android has managed to pull in a total revenue of $31 billion over its lifetime, and $22 billion in profit. These numbers were supplied by Oracle’s attorney in a lawsuit against Google, in which the former accused Google of using its Java software to develop Android without paying Oracle for its use.
It also seems that Google wasn’t too thrilled with Oracle disclosing the information, which was said to have been based on confidential internal financial documents. The idea was to show just how commercial Android is. According to Oracle attorney, Annette Hurst, “Look at the extraordinary magnitude of commerciality here.”
Also note that while $31 billion is a lot of money for many of us, in terms of a company of Google’s magnitude, $31 billion over the course of 8 years isn’t a lot. For example in 2014, Google’s total company revenue was $66 billion, so as you can tell, $31 billion spread over 8 years only represents a small portion of what Google makes.