During the trial between Google and the American Department of Justice, a manager of the firm made revelations about certain practices of the web giant. Indeed, each year Google shares billions of dollars in revenue generated by its search engine with Android smartphone manufacturers and operators. Necessary expenses to fight against iOS according to him.
While Google deployed the stable version of Android 14 in October 2023 alongside the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, the trial currently taking place between the web giant and the US Department of Justice allows us to learn more about the practices of the Mountain View firm.
Indeed, Jamie Rosenberg, executive of the company in charge of Android and the Google Play Store, made statements on the sharing of revenues generated by its search engine. Every year, Google spends billions of dollars with Android device manufacturers and telephone operators like Samsung and Verizon.
Google shares search engine revenue to protect Android… and its monopoly
According to the official, these expenses are essential for guarantee innovation around Android and for support its ecosystem against its main competitor: Apple and iOS. “By sharing search engine revenue with smartphone makers like Samsung Electronics Co. and phone carriers like Verizon, Google ensures that these companies have the resources to promote new Android products and help keep them up to date. by continuing to offer security bets for example”, he declared on the stand.
As a reminder, American justice has just sued Google for violating antitrust laws. She claims that Google, by paying billions of dollars to Samsung and other companies, has built a monopoly position on search. In this way, Google Search has become the default search engine on smartphones and PCs, to the detriment of competition. In exchange for this default installation of Google Search, Google therefore pays companies a portion of the advertising revenue generated by searches.
Quite intriguingly, if Jamie Rosenberg’s testimony is to be believed, Apple is also one of the beneficiaries of this revenue sharingin exchange for the integration of Google Search and the main Google apps on iPhones.
Source : Bloomberg
