Google Maps generated $11 billion in revenue last year despite being free to users. The money comes from two sources: businesses paying to appear at the top of map searches, and the Google Places API, which charges about three cents per request for address autofill on websites. If spun off, Maps would rank among the world's top 250 companies by value.
Last year, Google Maps made $11 billion giving their product away for free to users like you and me. You have reached your destination. How do they do that? Well, we've all used Google Maps before. You plug in the directions to a new restaurant or a friend's house, and you've got this magical blue guideline outlining your exact path. And all those forms when you start entering your address and it autofills, well, that's Google Maps too. But have you ever thought about how much it costs to keep that whole operation running? Dozens of satellites taking pictures, hundreds of Streetcar Views driving down literally every street in the world. It is not a cheap business to run. So how do they make so much money? First is ads. Businesses pay to be the top search results in Google Maps, but even more profitable, they sell access to that data through API connections. That form I mentioned in websites that completes your address, that's an API connection, and it's called Google Places. Businesses pay 3 cents per use for that. And if a product is free for you, rest assured the company has found another way to make money. And if Google Maps was a standalone company, they would rank as one of the top 250 companies in the entire world.
