Google has lost a major antitrust case that centered around search. They of course will appeal this decision but it’s certainly an eye opener to see just how much they paid Apple to be the default search on all their platforms. In a time where publishers have watched their adsense revenue shrink, there was plenty of money going round and round.
According to TechCrunch Google spent $26 billion for the right to be the default search engine across Apple and Android platforms.
From the article:
Mehta said that Google abused its monopoly power over the search business in part by paying companies like Apple to present its search engine as the default choice on their devices and web browsers. The Justice Department and states filed the antitrust suit against Google in 2020, which kicked off in court in September 2023.
Google pays companies including Apple, Samsung and Mozilla billions of dollars for prime placement in web browsers and on smartphones. In 2021 alone, Google spent $26 billion to be the default search engine across Apple and Android platforms. According to The New York Times, about $18 billion of that spend went to Apple alone. Google shares 36% of search ad revenue from Safari with Apple. The government has argued that paying for the dominant position effectively kneecapped competitors from being able to build up their own search engines to a scale that would give them the data and reach to stay competitive.
It feels like Microsoft and browsers all over again. It will be interesting to see if Google wins the appeal and what changes are made.
