Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
65,679
34,303


The United States Justice Department is targeting a lucrative deal between Apple and Google as part of one of the U.S. government's largest antitrust cases, reports The New York Times.

iu.jpg


On Tuesday, the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, claiming the Mountain View-based company used anticompetitive and exclusionary practices in the search and advertising markets to maintain an unlawful monopoly.

In 2017, Apple updated an agreement to keep Google's search engine as the preselected option on Apple devices. The New York Times reports that Apple receives an estimated eight to 12 billion dollars per year in exchange for making Google the default search engine on its devices and services, including the iPhone and Siri. This is believed to be the single biggest payment Google makes to anyone, and it accounts for 14 to 21 percent of Apple's annual profits.

Prosecutors claim that the deal is representative of illegal tactics used to protect Google's monopoly and stifle competition. According to the Justice Department, almost one half of Google's search traffic now comes from Apple devices, and the prospect of losing the agreement has been described as "terrifying" and a "code red" scenario within the company. Google's search traffic is integral to its business model due to its system of ads.

Apple is likewise coming under fire for facilitating anticompetitive behavior by acquiescing to the deal and extracting more money with regular renegotiations. Although the two companies are competitors in Silicon Valley, the agreement is said to be part of "an unlikely union of rivals."

The Justice Department's complaint cites a senior Apple employee's remark from 2018 which said that "our vision is that we work as if we are one company."

The legal intervention poses a threat to a significant chunk of Apple's revenue, but it is a bigger danger for Google, which would seemingly have no way to replace the traffic it would lose. The New York Times speculates that such a breakup could push Apple to acquire or build its own search engine, which could in turn pose an even greater threat to Google.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Google Reportedly Pays Apple $8-12 Billion Per Year to be Default iOS Search Engine
 

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,391
5,831
Seems like google would lose little traffic but apple would lose a lot of money. (Most people would choose google as their default)

Maybe. But the crazy stat is 50% of google search traffic comes from Apple. Not sure google wants to gamble with that. Most people don’t change defaults.

According to the Justice Department, almost one half of Google's search traffic now comes from Apple devices, and the prospect of losing the agreement has been described as "terrifying" and a "code red" scenario within the company.
 

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,391
5,831
I knew it was a lot of money but, I would have never guessed it was that much.

A privacy centered company using a company that exploits people’s privacy as the default search engine is crazy stuff.
Last estimate was $3 billion

 

GeoStructural

macrumors 65816
Oct 8, 2016
1,199
4,109
Colombia
A privacy centered company using a company that exploits people’s privacy as the default search engine is crazy stuff.

Funny how people still believes Apple's narrative. That’s bull***t.

The last update on my 4K smartTV (Samsung) forced the installation of Apple Music and Apple TV without my consent, I don’t like the intrusion but what infuriates me the most is that I CANNOT UNINSTALL IT! The option is greyed-out, WTF. (I can uninstall the evil ones: Prime Video, Google TV, just not the holy ones: Apple's).

E643683F-E1F4-4D45-AA8A-71D1C4820D66.jpeg


The only reason Apple was able to moderately sustain their “privacy” narrative was because Services was not their main business, it was Hardware, but now that they are competing in Music, TV and all those services they will quietly phase it out, THEY WANT/NEED YOUR DATA.

Apple ran a ad business too for several years, I can see them going back to it in the future.

A quick search will show you many examples of how your data does not stay on your iPhone and more specifically you get all sorts of targeted ads everywhere on your phone even by disabling every option possible.
 
Last edited:

Apple_Robert

Contributor
Sep 21, 2012
35,600
52,358
In a van down by the river

Rainshadow

macrumors 6502a
Feb 16, 2017
645
1,417
That is a heck of an increase for Apple. How do you feel about Apple taking money from Google for the browser default? Do you think it contradicts Apple’s stance in any way?

maybe a bit. But only in perception. I still see Apple as privacy focused but I’ve always recognized that if I’m using services like Google, that those services would be receiving my data. I do have a choice of DDG. And I have changed the settings on occasion. The point is whenever I am only using Apple services, I still feel as though I’m about as safe as I can be in this technological world.
 

BigMcGuire

Cancelled
Jan 10, 2012
9,832
14,032
Amazing. Very few people know what Google and Facebook do to one's privacy. Just talking to people about how their personal data is being handled by these two companies gets one called crazy. Yet, look at the $ these two companies rake in.

DuckDuckGo -- Safari + AdGuard Pro. If you have to use a Chromium Browser - use Brave or Edge (the Chromium clone one).

But even I have to use Bing or Google sometimes for some searches.

Just amazing how much $ people's habits and personal data sell for.
 

farewelwilliams

Suspended
Jun 18, 2014
4,966
18,041
I knew it was a lot of money but, I would have never guessed it was that much.

A privacy centered company using a company that exploits people’s privacy as the default search engine is crazy stuff.

Or perhaps most people would switch back to Google if it wasn't the default engine because DuckDuckGo and others still can't replicate the results that Google provides AND Apple can reinvest some of those billions back into privacy conscious solutions such as Apple Sign In and Safari privacy features.
 

cmaier

Suspended
Jul 25, 2007
25,405
33,474
California
Maybe. But the crazy stat is 50% of google search traffic comes from Apple. Not sure google wants to gamble with that. Most people don’t change defaults.

Presumably, though, the result would be a choice screen, not some other default. So everyone will see a list of choices, google being one of them.

How many are going to pick duckduckgo or bing?
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.