Google Search was the first successful service from Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s company and was largely responsible for being considered the “giant of the Internet”. It is responsible for web search (with all that goes with it) and also for the preferred access route to the huge advertising pie on the internet.

In addition to using it in its own products, primarily its Chrome web browser and Android mobile operating system, Google places its search engine in paid third-party products. Mozilla’s payment to include Search as the default search engine in its Firefox browser is well known. Although there are no official figures, it is estimated that Google’s payment for the concept ultimately accounts for 86% of the Mozilla Foundation’s income.

It’s just an example because Google has agreements (low economic payments or other considerations) with dozens of companies. The most important in terms of economic amount is that it maintains with Apple. And Google has been the default search engine for Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac, and more) since 2002. Considering the volume of devices Apple handles and their relevance around the world, the deal requires Google to pay millions.

The latest amount came to light in the antitrust process, it relates to 2022 and it is enormous, as we read in Bloomberg. The alphabet would pay 20 billion dollars to Apple for maintaining the search engine. Since Google pays 36% of the revenue generated by searches made through Safari, you can understand that the benefit for Alphabet is also huge.

There is a debate about the Google search engine

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said on several occasions that the deal between Apple and Google has made competing search engines like Bing impossible. Microsoft at one point offered its search engine to Apple, the Cupertino firm said it was not interested. Although Microsoft blamed Google, Apple executives such as Eddy Cue explained that they were concerned that Bing would not be able to compete “quality and ability”ensuring that at Apple they always thought so google search engine “was the best”.

They are not the only ones and this has led the Google search engine to amazing market shares. So much so that the United States Department of Justice accused Google of having a search monopoly and the deal with Apple is an important topic that is currently being discussed in a lawsuit where the exact data mentioned and those $20 billion in annual payments to Apple have been revealed.

If Google loses the antitrust case the deal between Apple and Google could be dissolved. Final arguments are expected this week and a verdict this year. In Europe, on the other hand, the Digital Markets Act requires Apple to make changes to the way its browser works and open a tap to make it easier for users to change their default search engine. There are several alternatives and very good ones for those who want to get away from the giants of the sector.