In a dramatic courtroom testimony, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asserted on Monday (Oct 2) that Google’s stranglehold on the search engine market provides it with an unfair advantage over its competitors.
During a heated cross-examination by a Google attorney in the midst of an antitrust trial, where lawyers from the US Department of Justice are seeking a federal judge’s ruling on Google’s anticompetitive practices, Nadella criticized Apple as well. He recalled Microsoft’s willingness to pay Apple to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone. Nadella even indicated that Microsoft was prepared to obscure its search engine’s branding on Apple Inc. devices.
‘Dominant’ Google In a strong condemnation of his arch-rival company’s business practices, Nadella argued that Google has made it exceedingly difficult for rivals to emerge.
Addressing a Washington, D.C. courtroom, he remarked, “You can call it popular, but to me, it’s dominant.”
The US Department of Justice’s case alleges that Google has unlawfully paid billions of dollars to Apple and others to maintain its monopoly.
Bing’s Struggle for Market Share Microsoft’s Bing has been striving to gain market share against Google since 2009. However, Nadella attributed the company’s inability to compete with Google.
He contended that Google’s domination of the search engine market enables it to amass data, creating a ‘network effect’ that reinforces Google’s position as a more potent tool for advertisers and users.
He stated, “It becomes even harder to break through when you don’t have (market) share.”
What Is the Google Antitrust Trial? The US government and its state allies allege that Google has unfairly established itself as the world’s leading search engine.
They assert that Google’s dominance of online search results from exclusivity agreements that the tech giant entered into with device manufacturers, mobile operators, and other companies. These agreements reportedly made Google the default search engine on most phones and web browsers.
Filed in 2020, the lawsuit alleges that such contracts were designed to be “exclusionary” and left rivals with no opportunity to compete with the search engine, solidifying its position as the search market leader.
The lawsuit also contends that these contracts have resulted in reduced consumer choice and innovation.
As a result, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has become one of the world’s wealthiest corporations. According to government estimates, Google has held approximately 90% of the search market share in recent years.
This three-month trial represents the most significant US antitrust case against a major tech company since the US Department of Justice took on Microsoft over two decades ago regarding the dominance of its Windows operating system.
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