When Samsung first unveiled its Galaxy AI last year, the company buried the possibility that it may be charging money for it in the feature in its fine print. Now, it looks like Google may do so with Gemini for free users, but the silver lining is that it won’t be happening this year.
The Verge cites Google CEO Sundar Pichai as saying so during Alphabet’s investor call. During said call, a Wells Fargo analyst asked what is the “future monetisation opportunity of Gemini” like, and if there’s a potential ad component.
In response, the company lead said that Google has “very good ideas for native ads”, and “just like you’ve seen with YouTube, we’ll give people options over time”. All that being said, the company will be focusing on the subscription direction “for this year”. Not too surprising, since ads are the way the company primarily makes its money after all.
The good news is that Google’s fiscal calendar follows the calendar year anyway. But the flip side is that what happens once 2026 rolls around is still quite up in the air, for both the internet search giant and the South Korean tech giant. Hopefully extending ads to Circle to Search, by far the more useful tool, is not on the cards.
(Source: The Verge)
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