Google Pays Apple $18B to $20B a Year to Be Default iOS Search Engine

[Karma*Police]

It's not meddling here. Allowing wealthy, powerful, dominant companies like Apple and Google to have agreements that help one or the other maintain or increase their dominance can be an antitrust violation and these types of activities need to be investigated, litigated, etc. by officials.

What activity? Paying Apple to make Google the default search engine? The search engine that 90% of people have willfully selected as their search engine of choice years ago?

If there’s no harm being done to the consumer, it’s gov’t meddling. Trust me, if a superior search engine comes along, it’ll displace Google on Apple devices without any gov’t meddling.

 

[webkit]

What activity? Paying Apple to make Google the default search engine? The search engine that 90% of people have willfully selected as their search engine of choice years ago?

If t is so "willful" then why is Google paying Apple so much? Is part of it payment for Apple to stay out of the search engine business so Google can maintain or increase its dominance?

If there’s no harm being done to the consumer, it’s gov’t meddling. Trust me, if a superior search engine comes along, it’ll displace Google on Apple devices without any gov’t meddling.

It's not government meddling if they feel that the agreement is helping Google maintain its dominance or monopoly in search through the default settings and/or having Apple stay out of the search engine business. That would therefore make it a potential antitrust violation. The harm to consumers is that it allows Google to skew search results including favoring Google products/services, gives them too much control over the digital/search ad market including pricing, etc.

 

[Karma*Police]

If t is so "willful" then why is Google paying Apple so much? Is part of it payment for Apple to stay out of the search engine business so Google can maintain or increase its dominance?





It's not government meddling if they feel that the agreement is helping Google maintain its dominance or monopoly in search through the default settings and/or having Apple stay out of the search engine business. That would therefore make it a potential antitrust violation. The harm to consumers is that it allows Google to skew search results including favoring Google products/services, gives them too much control over the digital/search ad market including pricing, etc.

Because it’s good business to ensure they remain in the pole position. Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, etc. paid Netscape for eyeballs but that didn’t help any of them from losing to little Google and their superior pagerank system.

The gov’t “feels” many things and they’re wrong most of the time. Their meddling creates more problems than they solve. These bureaucrats have to justify their jobs and ever-growing budgets (ie, our hard-earned money).

Google favoring their products/services is not the same as paying Apple to be the default search engine that everyone had already been using. They became the dominant search engine long before Apple introduced the iPhone. And if Google skews results to the point that their results become less relevant/trustworthy, that will only leave a bigger opening for superior competition to turn Google into the next Yahoo. The market is very efficient like that.

 

[webkit]

Because it’s good business to ensure they remain in the pole position. Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, etc. paid Netscape for eyeballs but that didn’t help any of them from losing to little Google and their superior pagerank system.

The gov’t “feels” many things and they’re wrong most of the time. Their meddling creates more problems than they solve. These bureaucrats have to justify their jobs and ever-growing budgets (ie, our hard-earned money).

Google favoring their products/services is not the same as paying Apple to be the default search engine that everyone had already been using. They became the dominant search engine long before Apple introduced the iPhone. And if Google skews results to the point that their results become less relevant/trustworthy, that will only leave a bigger opening for superior competition to turn Google into the next Yahoo. The market is very efficient like that.

Again, it's not government meddling and both sides (DOJ and companies) will present their sides and a court or courts will ultimately decide. If Google with its dominance or monopoly in search is paying Apple billions to be the default on Safari and/or to stay out of the search engine business, it can be an antitrust violation. The market would not be nearly as "efficient" if not for antitrust laws to try to keep companies in line.

 

[Karma*Police]

Again, it's not government meddling and both sides (DOJ and companies) will present their sides and a court or courts will ultimately decide. If Google with its dominance or monopoly in search is paying Apple billions to be the default on Safari and/or to stay out of the search engine business, it can be an antitrust violation. The market would not be nearly as "efficient" if not for antitrust laws to try to keep companies in line.

Again, it’s gov’t meddling since there is no harm to the consumer. And as I’ve shown with examples, the gov’t often creates more problems than it solves. That’s because unlike in the marketplace, bureaucrats aren’t held accountable for making wrong decisions which is why they screw things up so badly. But it seems no amount of examples or facts will ever dissuade you so I’ll end it here.

 

[webkit]

Again, it’s gov’t meddling since there is no harm to the consumer. And as I’ve shown with examples, the gov’t often creates more problems than it solves. That’s because unlike in the marketplace, bureaucrats aren’t held accountable for making wrong decisions which is why they screw things up so badly. But it seems no amount of examples or facts will ever dissuade you so I’ll end it here.

Again, it isn't government meddling if Google with its dominance or monopoly in search is paying Apple billions to be the default on Safari and/or to stay out of the search engine business. Because either or both can be antitrust violations, governments absolutely need to address it. Letting a dominant company or companies get away with violating laws is not good for consumers, competition, etc.

 

[DeepIn2U]

"We believe there is a possibility that federal courts rule against Google and force it to terminate its search deal with Apple," said Bernstein in the report seen by The Register. "We estimate that the ISA is worth $18B-20B in annual payments from Google to Apple, accounting for 14-16 percent of Apple's annual operating profits."

Article Link: Google Pays Apple $18B to $20B a Year to Be Default iOS Search Engine

This, while financial a big impact is ridiculous that it's THE only focus on Google as an antitrust lawsuit.

The bigger picture is where Google has become BOTH the creator, provider and competitor of Android open OS, AndroidOS GMS (the most popular Androis used globally using Google's Services which are by default include their services, as well as search and AI direct use and integration on 80% of devices launched, even if by total numbers Google Assistant is not the most popular by default due to Samsung's shipping Android devices.

Only Apple and Microsoft reached this level before, and Apple under Jobs' return abandoned it and rightfully so even if Apple was bleeding from it. Microsoft already got a huge God smack by the EU with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer / Edge being bundled by default.

So why is Google getting away with this, ans Microsoft playing the same game with MS Teams - even if changing the default installer name (which is a shifty and shady move btw)!!

For over almost 5yr Google was NOT a direct competitor in hardware with their licensees and by using OEM or a partner deals that originally benefitted competitors - Samsung, LG, Huawei, and HTC, Google bought HTC and now fully absorbed wholly for a few years now. His screams antitrust.