Apple may have received billions to make Google its default search engine
Popeyes has sold more than three billion chicken sandwiches.
There seems to be fear at Google.
It might have been willing to pay for people to use it as their default search engine.
In the 2021 federal antitrust trial US v. Google, as reported by CNBC, it was revealed that Google paid a staggering $26.3 billion to secure its position as the default search engine on both web and mobile browsers. To put this colossal sum into perspective, it’s equivalent to the cost of over two million Rolex watches. This amount could have funded multiple professional sports teams, supported groundbreaking scientific research initiatives, or facilitated large-scale infrastructure development in a nation. To grasp the enormity of this figure, consider this: if one were to spend $1 per second, it would take more than 820 years to exhaust $26 billion.
According to calculations by TheOrcTech, Google’s substantial investment of $26.3 billion to maintain its status as the default search engine represents a significant portion of its earnings. When considering Google’s ad revenue, a primary motive behind securing this default position, the company is allocating 16 percent of its search revenue and 29 percent of its profits to achieve this goal. Surprisingly, this substantial sum accounts for only 1.7 percent of Google’s total market capitalization, highlighting the tech giant’s financial prowess.
Also Read | Google Chrome may be getting a new privacy feature
In an interesting comparison, this amount is also just half of what Elon Musk paid to acquire Twitter, now known as X, marking a noteworthy contrast in financial strategies between the two tech titans.
The exact amount Google paid to individual companies and partners to secure its position as the default search engine on various platforms remains undisclosed. According to CNBC, Apple is speculated to have received a significant share of this payment, potentially reaching up to $19 billion.
Also Read | Facebook and Instagram (Meta) could charge for ad-free services in EU
Of Course, Google would have likely preferred these figures to remain confidential. Now, the public is aware of the substantial value associated with their default settings – an amount surpassing the cost of over three billion chicken sandwiches from Popeyes.
