Why and how Google’s “breakup order” is also a $20 billion “loss” for Apple

US Department of Justicerecent antitrust lawsuit against Google raised concerns about the potential consequences of its proposed remedies. The Department of Justice (DoJ) recommended, among many other measures, that the tech giant sell Chrome and enter into an exclusive search agreement with Apple.
This means Google won’t be able to pay Apple billions to maintain its position in default search on iPhones.

Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022

In May, a Bloomberg report said Google’s parent company Alphabet was paying Apple $20 billion in 2022 to become the default search engine in Safari, Apple’s web browser. The amount Google paid Apple in 2021 was around $15 billion.
Court documents in the US Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Google have revealed the staggering amounts the tech giant is paying Apple to remain the default search engine on its devices. While Apple gives users the option to switch to alternative search engines such as Bing or DuckDuckGo, Google remains the default preselect in Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
This default setting gives Google access to billions of Apple users, giving the company a significant advantage in the search market. At the heart of the Justice Department’s antitrust case is the argument that Google’s agreement with Apple helped the company create an unfair monopoly in online search.

What Apple Said About Google Search

During testimony in the case, Eddie Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, told the court that the company chose Google because there was no better choice at the time. He added that they “always considered Google to be the best.”
Interestingly, reports indicate that Apple has been exploring alternatives to Google, engaging in discussions with Microsoft and DuckDuckGo about potentially using their search engines on Apple devices. Apple even considered acquiring Microsoft’s search engine Bing, but ultimately decided to maintain its partnership with Google.