The Department of Justice’s case against Alphabet-subsidiary Google is the first test of Silicon Valley’s dominance since it took action against Microsoft more than two decades ago. One focus of the DOJ’s case are the billions of dollars that Google has paid Apple to be the default search engine on its Safari web browser.
Leah Nylen for Bloomberg Businessweek:
Since 2005, Google has paid Apple billions of dollars to be the default search engine on its Safari web browser, a deal that’s brought the two trillion-dollar corporations together in ways that have raised eyebrows in Washington. “Our vision is that we work as if we are one company,” wrote a senior Apple employee to a Google counterpart following a 2018 meeting to help make the pact more profitable.
That message is part of a trove of potentially damning internal communications coming to light as part of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Alphabet Inc.’s Google, where the government accuses the search giant of freezing out competitors through deals like the one it has with Apple.
The moment marks a new era of trustbusting aimed at the tech sector. The Justice Department has already filed a second antitrust case against Google over its advertising dominance…
While Google made a number of these deals, its agreement with Apple looms largest. First forged 18 years ago, it made Google Apple’s default search engine, while giving Apple as much as a 50% share of the ad revenue Google made from searches by users of Apple’s Safari browser. Google rode the wave of Apple’s successes in mobile, and enforcers say it now has a 90% share of the overall search market. At the same time, Apple has pocketed billions of dollars annually from the relationship—an estimated $18 billion in 2022 alone, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analysts.
MacDailyNews Take: While we wish Apple wouldn’t take Google’s money because the monopolized online Search Engine + Digital Ad Network that exists today (and has for years) is bad for everyone not named Alphabet Inc., Apple certainly has the right to monetize Safari’s default search engine – until they don’t. With both companies so large, it may be — in fact, is very likely — that the deal stifles competition in the search engine field. Antitrust remedies are called for in such cases.
Again, Google is a massive problem that simply must be addressed. There is one “Big Tech” company that is really stifling competition and for which antitrust remedies are in order: Alphabet (Google). — MacDailyNews, October 20, 2020
When one search engine has 86% share of the worldwide market (and Google basically isn’t even used in China), there is far, far, far too much power concentrated in one company. The whole concept of the World Wide Web is destroyed when a sole gatekeeper basically controls what gets seen, read, and heard. It’s not open, it’s completely closed and controlled.
Publishers who want to be read, for example, spend an inordinate amount of time making sure they follow Google’s dictates, nebulously sussed from Google’s secret algorithm, formatting their sites, even writing their articles a certain way, including certain words they might not choose if allowed to write freely, simply to please Google’s algorithm…
Hopefully, lawmakers can come together to figure out a way to do something to remedy the horribly uncompetitive situation in internet search. Google is, and has been for years, a perfect example of why antitrust laws exist. — MacDailyNews, July 29, 2020
With this unprecedented power, platforms have the ability to redirect into their pockets the advertising dollars that once went to newspapers and magazines. No one company should have the power to pick and choose which content reaches consumers and which doesn’t. — MacDailyNews, November 9, 2017
Imagine if your livelihood depended on one company that had not only monopolized web search (and, thereby, basically controlled how new customers find you), but also controlled the bulk of online advertising dollars which funded your business and which they could pull, simply threaten to pull, or reduce rates at any time? Now also imagine if you believe this monopolist basically stole the product of another company that is the very subject of your business? How much would you criticize the monopolist thief’s business practices?
You might guess that it would be a tough road to walk. (We’re only imagining, of course!)
That would be a good example of why monopolies are bad for everyone.
The U.S. government has utterly failed to police Google. Because the people with the power to do so currently are corrupt. Follow the money. Hopefully, the European Union will help to correct the situation.
In the meantime, stop using Google search and Google products wherever possible. Monopolies are bad for everyone. — MacDailyNews, July 14, 2016
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