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cailianshe news, september 9 (editor: ma lan)a month ago, a u.s. district judge declared that google's search engine violated antitrust laws, but has not yet decided what punishment to impose on google and its parent company alphabet.

what is even more breathtaking for the industry is that on monday, the u.s. department of justice will also hear a case against google for illegally monopolizing the digital advertising industry. this is google's second key antitrust case, and it may also become a life-or-death test for the company, and some people even jokingly call it a "bankruptcy battle."

the u.s. department of justice said that google has a monopoly on technology that matches online publishers and advertisers, meaning that it has dominance on both the buyer and seller sides of advertising transactions, which allows google to improperly earn up to 36 cents in profit for every $1 in transactions when brokering bilateral transactions.

the u.s. department of justice said this allowed google to dominate the digital advertising market and use its market power to stifle competition and innovation. it is reported that google's advertising business brought in $230 billion in revenue last year, accounting for 77% of total revenue, and is one of the company's core businesses.

a crucial lawsuit

in the search engine monopoly case that google lost, it was ruled to have an illegal monopoly because it paid tens of billions of dollars each year to smart device companies such as apple to lock google as the default search engine for electronic products.

however, wedbush managing director dan ives believes that although the department of justice has won a huge victory in the antitrust case against google's search engine, it is not expected to split up google as a company, but rather adjust its business model.

but google's advertising antitrust lawsuit may not be let down so easily.

according to peter cohan, professor of management practice at babson college, the antitrust case that opened on monday could cause more far-reaching damage to google because the simplest remedy is to require google to sell part of its advertising technology business. another possibility is to spin off its advertising division, which would obviously have a huge impact.

however, legal experts also pointed out that it would be extremely challenging for the department of justice to prove that google has a monopoly in the advertising business. the market is very complex and it is difficult to directly determine whether it has monopoly power.

google also countered that the justice department had misunderstood the field of advertising technology, focusing only on web ads accessed from computers, while ignoring the migration of consumers to mobile applications and the dramatic rise of social media in the advertising field over the past 15 years.

revenue from the adsense and google ad manager services at the core of this case has actually been declining, according to google, from $31.7 billion in 2021 to $31.3 billion in 2023.

it is foreseeable that this crucial trial will not see results in the short term, and both google and the us department of justice have equipped themselves with considerable legal teams. this debate will also provide the latest blueprint for silicon valley technology giants that are feeling more antitrust pressure.