MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google Inc. has finally revealed one of its financial secrets and spelled out how it splits revenue with other websites that show its online ads.
The Internet search leader's partners get 68 percent of the revenue from ads placed alongside articles and other content on Web pages. Websites keep 51 percent of the revenue from Google's ads shown next to their own search results.
The breakdown appeared Monday on one of Google's blogs.
Google has always said its advertising partners keep most of the revenue, but has faced criticism for not being more specific about the commission rates.
The commission for ads shown next to general Web content has remained the same since 2003, Google said. The rate for search ads has been in effect since 2005.
Most of the ads that Google sells appear next to its own search engine and other services that it owns. The company keeps all that revenue.
Ads shown next to Google's own services brought in $15.7 billion in revenue last year compared with $7.2 billion from marketing messages that Google distributed to other websites.
