Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Google secretly paid Samsung US$ 8 billion or around Rp. 125 trillion so that its product would remain the default on every Samsung cellphone.
The money paid is one of Google’s efforts to continue to dominate the internet world.
The products in question include Google Search, Google Assistant, and also the Play Store.
This information was discovered during the trial between Google and Epic. Epic’s lawyer asked James Kolotouros, Google’s Vice President of Partnerships, about the agreement between Google and Samsung.
Kolotorouros also explained that half or more of the Play Store’s revenue came from Samsung cellphones and other devices, as quoted by Android Authority, Monday (20/11/2023).
In 2019 the same report was also heard. Google is said to be carrying out Project Banyan to invest a number of funds with the aim of maintaining the Play Store on Samsung devices along with the Galaxy Store.
In fact, according to reports, Google offered to pay US$200 million (Rp. 3.1 trillion) over four years for the Galaxy Store in the Play Store. Payments are also included for the application billing system.
But the plan ultimately fell through. According to a report, Google signed three deals with Samsung worth US$8 billion.
Project Banyan was eventually discontinued. Based on an internal email in 2019, former head of Google Play operations, Jamie Rosenberg, said the project was closed because he felt it would create competition between app store teams.
Meanwhile, Epic is trying to prove that Google never suggested the existence of a third-party application store on Android devices.
The search engine giant is said to have spent money to make the Google Play Store available pre-installed and make it the default application on the device.
The deal that Google made has been going on for a long time. This practice is said to be under scrutiny in a separate antitrust lawsuit.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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