The Reason Google Secretly Paid Apple CS Hundreds of Trillion Rupiah Tech – 4 hours ago

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Google trial reveals a lot about the conspiracy of the tech giants behind the scenes. One of the payments of hundreds of trillions of rupiah from Google to Apple and Mozilla.

Based on reports CNBC International, Google paid US$ 26.3 billion (Rp. 418.7 trillion) to Apple, Samsung, Mozilla and several other companies throughout 2021 to make Google Search immediately available as default software on new iPhones.

The majority of the US$ 26.3 billion payment went to Apple. Previously, Apple was estimated to receive US$ 19 billion (Rp. 302 trillion) by 2023 so that Google Search would remain the default search engine on all Apple devices, including iPhones and Macbooks.

“Google pays billions of dollars each year to distributors, including top device manufacturers like Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung; major mobile carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Veriozon; and browser developers like Mozilla, Opera, and UCWeb to secure status “Google Search as the default search engine. In certain cases, this includes prohibiting partners from working with Google competitors,” wrote the US Department of Justice lawsuit.

Prosecutors at the trial stated that the payments from Google were evidence of Google’s efforts to maintain a monopoly in the web search engine business. The aim is to block competitor search engines from “key distribution channels”, one of which is Apple’s browser called Safari.

For decades, when opening Safari on an iPhone, users would see the Google search engine as a default service.

Google’s position as the default search engine on nearly all smart devices is at the heart of the largest antitrust trial in the US in more than two decades.

“This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google will face meaningful competition in the search space,” Justice Department attorney Kenneth Dintzer said as the US government began filing suit against the tech giant.

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Expected to last 10 weeks with dozens of witnesses called to court, Google will try to convince Judge Amit P. Mehta that the case filed by the Justice Department is baseless.

“While Google has innovated and improved its search engine for decades, plaintiffs have escaped this inescapable truth,” Google lawyer John Schmidtlein told the court, quoted from NDTV, Wednesday (13/9/2023).

Held in a Washington courtroom, the case is the biggest technology case since Microsoft was targeted more than two decades ago for the dominance of its Windows operating system.

“Even in Washington DC, I think we have the highest concentration of blue coats of anywhere here right now,” Mehta said.

Photo: DuckDuckGo DuckDuckGo

The essence of the Googe case is that the government believes that the technology giant unfairly gained search engine dominance by making exclusive contracts with device makers, mobile operators and other companies so that there was no chance for competitors to compete.

Dintzer told Judge Mehta that Google pays $10 billion annually to Apple and others to secure the default status of its search engine on mobile phones and web browsers. This monopolistic move buries new companies, before they even have a chance to develop.

Over the last decade, this has created a “feedback loop” so that Google’s dominance has become stronger due to its monopoly on user data that its competitors cannot match.

“Through this feedback loop, the wheel has been turning for over 12 years. This has always been in Google’s favor,” Dintzer said.

This dominance has made Google’s parent, Alphabet, one of the richest companies in the world. With search ads making up nearly 60 percent of the company’s revenue, far less than revenue from other activities such as YouTube or Android phones.

“We will track what Google did to maintain its monopoly. It’s not about what it could or should have done, it’s about what they did,” Dintzer told the court.

Google’s rebuttal

Google itself firmly rejected the US case, saying that its search engine was successful because of its quality and the huge investments made over the years.

“This court cannot intervene in the marketplace and say ‘Google you are not allowed to compete.’ “That’s anathema to US antitrust laws,” said Google’s Schmidtlein.

Photo: Getty Images/Alexander Hassenstein

Schmidtlein insisted that testimony from executives at Apple and others would show that Google earned default browser status on the iPhone based on its merits.

The biggest victims in this case have been rival search engines that have not gained meaningful market share for search or search advertising against Google, such as Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo.

Google remains the world’s go-to search engine, controlling 90 percent of the market in the United States and worldwide, much of it from mobile usage on iPhones and phones running Google’s Android.

Mehta’s decision is expected to come several months after about three months of hearings.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(dem/dem)