Google is currently facing an antitrust case in the US, and during the trial, it was revealed that the tech giant paid Apple a whopping $18 billion in 2021 to maintain its position as the default search engine on Apple devices. The US Justice Department has accused Google of illegally securing a monopoly in online search by paying to be the default search engine on various browsers and phones.
Google’s concerns about Apple’s advancements in search technology led to this substantial payment. Apple had improved its search tool, Spotlight, to provide richer web results, similar to Google. To counter this, Google considered developing its own version of Spotlight for iPhones and aimed to persuade more iPhone users to switch from Apple’s Safari browser to Google’s Chrome.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also weighed in on the matter, stating that Apple feared Google might use its popular services like Gmail to encourage users to switch to Chrome. He revealed that Microsoft had hoped to become the default browser on Apple devices and was willing to pay as much as $15 billion for this privilege.
Google has maintained that users have the freedom to change their default search engine despite Google being the default option on Apple devices.
