U.S. antitrust case against tech giant Google, Prabhakar Raghavan, the Head of Google Search, revealed staggering figures related to the company’s pursuit of search engine dominance in 2021. Google, in an effort to maintain its supremacy over Bing, invested a jaw-dropping $26.3 billion, paving the way for default search status on several prominent platforms.
According to information unveiled during the case, Google allocated substantial portions of this hefty sum to secure default search engine privileges on various platforms, with a substantial share, a whopping $18 billion, going to Apple. This colossal investment cemented Google as the primary search engine on Apple’s Safari browser.
The release of this financial data followed a recent debate during the lawsuit between the involved parties and Judge Amit Mehta regarding whether these figures should remain confidential. Judge Mehta has consistently advocated for transparency in the trial proceedings.
The U.S. Department of Justice has expressed concerns over the colossal financial outlay by Google, characterizing it as an unfair tactic that places smaller competitors at a significant disadvantage and diminishes competitiveness within the search engine market.
In light of this revelation, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, disclosed in its latest report that search advertising raked in approximately $44 billion in the past three months and an astounding $165 billion over the last year. Google’s broader advertising business, which encompasses revenue from YouTube ads, generated just under $90 billion. These figures underscore the magnitude of Google’s investment in maintaining default search status.
This strategic maneuver, which involved substantial financial commitments, saw Google relinquishing 16% of its modern search revenue and 29% of its profits, all in pursuit of securing default search dominance. As the antitrust case continues to unfold, the impact of Google’s substantial investment on the tech industry’s competitive landscape remains a central point of contention.
