BIG SPENDERS

Google Paid $26 BILLION to Become Default Search Engine on Most Devices

The search department’s 2021 revenue was over $146 billion, while the costs to acquire traffic was only $26 billion.

Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to become the default search engine on mobile and web browsers, according to Friday testimony from the company’s vice president, Prabhakar Raghavan, in the US v. Google antitrust trial. Bloomberg reported that most of the money was likely paid to Apple to be the default search engine on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The Justice Department has argued that Google illegally obtained monopoly power by throwing their weight around, blocking competitors like Apple’s Safari browser. According to CNBC, Google countered that by saying users can easily switch their default search engine. A slide show was presented in court on Friday showing that the company’s search department had revenue of more than $146 billion in 2021, while the costs to acquire traffic were $26 billion. That dwarfed 2014 data showing $47 billion in revenue and $7.1 billion to obtain default status. Google previously refused to make those numbers public, complaining that it would diminish its leverage in contract negotiations. Google and Apple did not provide any comment to CNBC on Friday.