How Google’s search dominance has made life difficult for smaller search engines
The Hindu
The time is never right for a tech company to be in the dock for an antitrust trial, but this is an especially vulnerable stage for Google.
The time is never right for a tech company to be in the dock for an antitrust trial. But now may be an especially vulnerable time for Google, given the stiff competition it is facing in the AI and cloud business.
But the antitrust trial that started in Washington on 12 September is definitive for its crown jewel: the search business. The lawsuit is seminal for antitrust cases of the future and in many ways, the future of the internet. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Justice Department have alleged that Alphabet abused its dominance to deter rivals from entering the search engine market.
The early days of the lawsuit went over the steep deals that Google made with Apple and Samsung to remain as the default search engine. An estimate from financial analyst Bernstein have estimated that Google could be paying Apple between $18 billion and $20 billion a year under this deal.
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It is evident that the Apple contract was a potent one. According to Statista, in 2022, there were more than 120 million iPhone users in the U.S., which accounts for nearly 49% of all smartphone users.
In his testimony earlier this month, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said about the Apple contract: “They basically king-make.” (Remember Internet Explorer?)
The CEO of DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, noted in his testimony that switching just Apple’s private-browsing default to their engine would have pushed DuckDuckGo’s market share “multiple times over.”
As Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu is all set to take oath as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh for the fourth time, at Kesarapalle IT Park located near Vijayawada on June 12 (Wednesday), arrangements are underway for a live telecast of the ceremony at eleven places across the Nellore district.
Governor S. Abdul Nazeer has invited the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), to form the government in the State. The swearing-in ceremony will be held at Kesarapalle near here on June 12 (Wednesday). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a host of national leaders will take part in the event
Ambassador of Finland to India Kimmo Lähdevirta on Tuesday said Finnish companies “face issues” in Tamil Nadu due to regulations that prevent their participation in tendering processes. Interacting with senior journalists of The Hindu at its head office in Chennai, he said certain regulations imposed by the State government were limiting.