It takes money to get to the top and Google parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) -) has always been willing to pay the cost to the the boss.
But with the company's existence as a multi-pronged global conglomerate under scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Justice, just how much Alphabet has been willing to pay is coming into focus.
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Google handles over 90% of search queries worldwide, according to Oberlo, and it pays a pretty penny to keep it that way.
The tech company — which started off as just a search engine, but has since morphed into much more — pays about $10 billion annually to Apple (AAPL) -) and other smartphone makers to keep its spot as the world's most dominant search engine, the DOJ said.
Google has agreements with phone companies Apple, Samsung and internet browser Mozilla Firefox that keep its search engine as the default option, in turn making sure competition is light for its search engine bell cow — nearly 60% of Google's revenue comes from search ads.
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"This case is about the future of the internet and whether Google's search engine will ever face meaningful competition," DOJ lawyer Kenneth Dintzer said, according to the AP.
The agency first filed its antitrust lawsuit against Alphabet about three years ago with Jeff Rosen, the deputy attorney general, saying at the time "Google is the gateway to the internet and a search advertising behemoth. It has maintained its monopoly power through exclusionary practices that are harmful to competition.”
Meanwhile, Alphabet denies that it is illegally using these agreements to maintain its market share dominance, while arguing that its product is simply superior to that of its competitors.
But the DOJ disagrees.
“Google’s contracts ensure that rivals cannot match the search quality ad monetization, especially on phones. Through this feedback loop, this wheel has been turning for more than 12 years. It always turns to Google’s advantage," Dintzer said, according to the AP.
The DOJ also claims that Google coerced Apple — the world's most valuable company — into making Google the default search engine on its devices by making that stipulation a condition for revenue sharing between the two companies.
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