The brutal amount Google is paying Apple to become Safari’s default search engine

Antitrust proceedings against Google In the United States, this has again attracted the attention of the technology sector. Over the past few hours, new documents have been released revealing important details about the California firm; in particular, his agreement with Manzana be Safari’s default search engine.

Thus, it has officially become known how much Google pays Cupertino residents to maintain this privilege on devices such as iPhone, iPad and Mac. And this figure is simply cruel.

In accordance with Bloombergone of the released files includes confirmation from Eddie Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, that Google paid him. $20 billion in 2022 alone remain Safari’s default search engine. While there have been speculations about the presence of devices of this caliber, neither of the two tech companies have yet to publicly confirm it.

The same document states that the agreement with Google accounted for 17.5% of Apple’s operating profit in 2020. And by May 2021, Mountain View residents were paying more than $1 billion a month for the alliance to those led by Tim Cook.

It’s worth noting that Google does not provide Apple with a fixed figure per year. The link between both corporations, the current version of which has been in place since 2016, provides for block participants to retain a percentage of the advertising revenue that Google generates through Safari.

In 2022 alone, Google paid $20 billion to become Safari’s default search engine.

As we noted earlier, the figure revealed in the new court documents is not entirely surprising. Last October, the US Department of Justice said it believed Google was paying Apple about $10 billion annually. However, financial analyst data published Register They believed that the agreement between the parties It was closer to $20 billion..

The huge sum Google is paying to become Safari’s default search engine is of particular importance to prosecutors. Their goal is to demonstrate that the agreement with the bloc members is not for economic gain, but rather is aimed at defeating competition using unfair tactics. Especially when it comes to the iPhone, which currently has over 50% of the US market.

Microsoft, for example, also tried to negotiate with Apple in order to take the place that Google occupies today. However, their attempts were in vain. Satya Nadella, Redmond’s CEO, testified in the antitrust trial and detailed his proposal to Tim Cook and company. They offered 90% of Bing’s revenue from Safari and suggested removing the search engine’s logo on Apple devices. And they were even ready lose about 15 billion dollars annuallyif it guaranteed that they would become Safari’s next default search engine.

Apple, the “kingmaker”

Nadella justified his position by saying that Apple is essentially a “kingmaker.” And he explained that when a search engine is installed by default on a popular product like the iPhone, it makes it very difficult for users to search for alternative tools. The default choice is “the only thing that matters in terms of changing user behavior,” the Microsoft executive said.

That’s why Google, which has been Safari’s default search engine since 2003, doesn’t want to lose such a privilege. A reason that could explain why he accepted the conditions that Apple imposed on him so that he could maintain that condition. Last November, a witness reported that Apple retained 36% of Google’s advertising revenue in Safari.

This means that if Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 alone, it’s because it made over $50 billion from Apple’s web browser alone that year. Cruelty, no doubt. Google and the US Department of Justice will present their closing arguments this Thursday and Friday. However, the final decision of the antimonopoly process is expected to become known only in the coming months.