According to a slide released in a federal antitrust trial against Google, the corporation paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to be the default search engine on mobile phones as well as web browsers.
This figure provides a more precise estimate of how much Google pays companies like Apple to use its search engine as the default on their devices.
The $26.3 billion amount does not indicate payments to any specific corporation, though Apple is probably the biggest beneficiary.
As stated in the DOJ complaint, “Google pays billions of dollars each year to distributors—including major U.S. wireless carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon; popular device manufacturers such as Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung; and browser developers such as Mozilla, Opera, and UCWeb—to secure default status for its general search engine and, in many cases, to specifically prohibit Google’s counterparties from dealing with Google’s competitors.”
In the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice and a group of state attorneys general have contended that Google has unlawfully kept its monopoly on general search by using its dominance to bar competitors from important distribution channels, like Apple’s Safari web browser.
According to Google, it only takes a few clicks for users to switch their default search engine.
The Google search division generated over $146 billion in revenue in 2021, with a percentage of traffic acquisition costs exceeding $26 billion, as per the presentation named “Google Search+ Margins” that was presented in court.
The slide had data going all the way back to 2014 when Google recorded sales for the business of approximately $47 billion and paid roughly $7.1 billion for its default position.
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