The antitrust trial against Google In the United States it has once again captured the attention of the technology sector. In the last few hours, new documents have been released that reveal important details about the businesses of the Californian firm; in particular, its agreement with Manzana to be the Safari default search engine.
In this way, it has officially come to light how much Google pays those from Cupertino to reserve that privilege on devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Mac. And the figure is simply brutal.
According to Bloombergone of the released files includes confirmation from Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, that he was paid by Google $20 billion in 2022 alone to remain Safari’s default search engine. Although there was already speculation about a number of that caliber, neither of the two technology companies had publicly confirmed it until now.
The same document indicates that in 2020 the agreement with Google had represented 17.5% of Apple’s operating income. While by May 2021, those from Mountain View were paying more than $1 billion a month to those led by Tim Cook for this alliance.
It is worth mentioning that Google does not provide a fixed figure per year to Apple. The link between both corporations, whose current version has been in force since 2016, stipulates that those from the block keep a percentage of the advertising revenue that Google generates through Safari.
In 2022 alone, Google paid $20 billion to be Safari’s default search engine
As we previously indicated, the figure revealed by the new court documents is not entirely surprising. Last October, the US Department of Justice indicated that it believed Google paid Apple about $10 billion annually. However, data from a financial analyst published by The Register They considered that the contract between the parties It was closer to $20 billion..
The brutal amount that Google pays to be Safari’s default search engine is of special importance to prosecutors. These aim to demonstrate that the agreement with those on the block does not seek economic benefit, but rather to prevail against the competition using unfair tactics. Especially when talking about the iPhone, which currently has more than 50% of the market share in the United States.
Microsoft, for example, also tried to reach an agreement with Apple to occupy the place that Google has today. However, his attempts were in vain. Satya Nadella, CEO of Redmond, testified in the antitrust trial and detailed his proposal to Tim Cook and company. They offered 90% of Bing’s revenue on Safari and proposed removing its search engine logo on Apple devices. And they were even willing to lose about 15 billion dollars annuallyif this guaranteed them to be Safari’s next default search engine.
Apple, the “kingmaker”
Nadella justified his stance by arguing that Apple is basically a “kingmaker.” And she explained that when a search engine is imposed as the default in a product as popular as the iPhone, for example, it is very difficult for users to look for alternative tools. Being the default option is “the only thing that matters in terms of changing user behavior,” the Microsoft leader argued.
That is why Google, which has been Safari’s default search engine since 2003, does not want to lose such a privilege. Reason that would explain why he would have accepted the conditions that Apple imposed on him so that he could maintain that condition. Last November, a witness revealed that Apple kept 36% of Google’s advertising revenue in Safari.
This means that, if Google paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022 alone, it is because that year it generated more than $50 billion from Apple’s web browser alone. A brutality, without a doubt. This Thursday and Friday, both Google and the US Department of Justice will offer their closing arguments. However, the final decision of the antitrust trial is expected to be known only in the coming months.
