Google antitrust ruling is out, will Apple build a search engine?
2024-08-08
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On August 8, according to foreign media macrumors, the US federal court recently ruled on Google's antitrust lawsuit, finding that Google illegally maintained its monopoly through default search engine transactions with Apple and other companies. Google plans to appeal the ruling. At present, the court has not yet made it clear how to correct Google's monopoly behavior, but there is a possibility that Google may no longer be able to pay to become the default search engine on Apple devices.
macrumors
Google has been paying Apple huge fees for years to become the default search engine on iPhones, iPads, and Macs. For example, in 2022, Google paid Apple about $20 billion, which accounted for about 36% of its total revenue from Safari browser searches. The deal is beneficial to both Apple and Google, with Apple receiving huge revenue every year and Google gaining wide coverage of Apple's huge user base.
In its antitrust ruling, the court suggested that Apple has the "financial, technical, and human resources" to develop its own search engine, but has not yet done so due to the revenue it receives from Google. Apple is indeed rumored to be developing a search engine. In November 2022, The Information reported that Apple has been developing a web search engine since 2022, but it will take at least four years to launch such a product. Apple has a dedicated search team responsible for Spotlight, Siri suggestions, and content search tools provided by Siri. It is possible that Apple will convert its Spotlight technology into a web search function, or leverage Apple smart technology. With changes to Siri in 2024 and 2025 and the development of AI technology, iPhone, iPad, and Mac users may gradually shift from traditional web searches to more reliance on other search tools.
In addition to developing its own search engine, Apple has other options. In the antitrust case, documents show that Microsoft has been trying to convince Apple to replace Safari's default search engine with Bing for many years, and even proposed to sell Bing to Apple, but Apple believes that Bing cannot compete with Google in "quality and capabilities." Microsoft even offered to share all of Bing's revenue with Apple, but Apple service chief Eddy Cue said that there is no "effective alternative" to Google, and Apple has always chosen Google because "we have always believed it is the best."
Apple executives also discussed DuckDuckGo, specifically as the default search engine for private browsing mode, but deemed it "not a very good search engine" and "not good enough."
If the court rules that Google can't pay to be the default search engine for Safari, it would eliminate Apple's financial incentive to prioritize Google's search engine. In Europe, the Digital Markets Act requires Apple to allow iPhone users to choose a browser as the default option during the device setup process, offering an alternative to Safari. U.S. courts could require a similar setup process that allows users to select a search engine from a list when they first activate a device.
If the DOJ and the courts are correct that Apple's deal with Google has prevented Apple from developing its own search engine, then stopping the payments could prompt Apple to develop a search product. Obviously, Apple is unlikely to enter into a partnership with Bing or another company, or even purchase a search engine, because it believes that all non-Google options are not good enough. Based on what we know so far, without Google's revenue, Apple's best move may be to enter the search field itself.
Apple's projections (according to the lawsuit) estimate that it could lose more than $12 billion in revenue in the first five years after separating from Google, in addition to the billions of dollars it would need to build and maintain a search engine. Apple would need to create an advertising platform and work on monetizing search, and it would need to ensure that the search engine it developed was comparable to Google's.
The industry believes that it remains to be seen whether Apple will build its own search engine, but the company undoubtedly has the resources and capabilities required to enter the market. As the Google appeal process unfolds, it remains to be seen how Apple will respond and how this will affect its partnership with Google.
Source: Huanqiu.com
