Google CEO Sundar Pichai (L) and Apple CEO Tim Prepare dinner (R) hear as U.S. President Joe Biden speaks throughout a roundtable with American and Indian enterprise leaders within the East Room of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2023.
Anna Moneymaker | Getty Photos
Google paid $26.3 billion to be the default search engine on cell phones and internet browsers in 2021, in accordance with a slide made public Friday in a federal antitrust trial in opposition to the corporate.
The quantity is a extra granular look into how a lot Google pays companions, together with Apple, to be the default search engine on their merchandise. The U.S. Division of Justice and a coalition of state attorneys common have argued within the case that Google has illegally maintained its monopoly energy usually search by leveraging its dominance to lock rivals out of key distribution channels, reminiscent of Apple’s Safari internet browser.
The $26.3 billion determine doesn’t signify the funds to anyone firm, however Apple seemingly represents the biggest recipient. Bernstein beforehand estimated Google might pay Apple as a lot as $19 billion this yr for the out-of-the-box default placement on Apple units.
“Google pays billions of {dollars} annually to distributors—together with popular-device producers reminiscent of Apple, LG, Motorola, and Samsung; main U.S. wi-fi carriers reminiscent of AT&T, T-Cellular, and Verizon; and browser builders reminiscent of Mozilla, Opera, and UCWeb—to safe default standing for its common search engine and, in lots of circumstances, to particularly prohibit Google’s counterparties from coping with Google’s opponents,” the DOJ criticism reads.
Google has argued that customers can nonetheless decide to alter their default search engine with a couple of clicks.
In response to the slide proven in court docket Friday — titled “Google Search+ Margins,” which primarily refers to Google’s search enterprise — that division’s 2021 income was greater than $146 billion, whereas the portion of site visitors acquisition prices was greater than $26 billion.
The slide included numbers relationship again to 2014, when Google booked income of roughly $47 billion for the division and paid about $7.1 billion for the default standing. Which means income for Search+ roughly tripled between 2014 and 2021, whereas this portion of TAC prices almost quadrupled.
Whereas Google often studies total TAC, that quantity additionally consists of the quantity Google pays to community companions for advertisements proven on their properties, in accordance with its 10-Ok submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee.
The opposite portion of the general TAC determine Google studies in earnings consists of the funds it makes to “distribution companions who make accessible our search entry factors and companies,” in accordance with the 10-Ok. Google says its “distribution companions embrace browser suppliers, cellular carriers, unique gear producers and software program builders.” That is the portion of TAC that seemed to be represented by the slide, which referred solely to Search+ income.
A Google spokesperson declined to remark. An Apple spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
WATCH: How US antitrust regulation works, and what it means for Massive Tech
Do not miss these CNBC PRO tales:
