In 2021, Google expended $26 billion to secure its position as the default search engine.
Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan attested on Friday that in 2021, Google disbursed a substantial sum of $26.3 billion to secure and uphold its default search engine status while boosting web traffic. According to Bloomberg, a significant portion of this expenditure was likely allocated to Apple, with which Google has maintained a long-standing tradition of offering substantial financial incentives to retain its position as the default search engine on Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.
During his testimony in the ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought forth by the Department of Justice, Raghavan disclosed that Google’s search advertising generated a remarkable $146.4 billion in revenue in 2021. This figure provides context for the $26 billion Google paid to maintain its default status. Raghavan clarified that obtaining default status represented the most substantial portion of their expenditures aimed at acquiring web traffic.
Though Raghavan did not specify the exact amount allocated to Apple from the $26.3 billion, CNBC reported an estimate from the private wealth management firm Bernstein, which suggested that Google might be delivering as much as $19 billion to Apple in 2021 to retain the default search privilege.
A slide presented in the courtroom exposed that in 2014, Google accrued $47 billion in search-related revenue while disbursing $7.1 billion to retain its default status. Raghavan pointed out that the total payments for default search engine status escalated nearly fourfold from 2014 to 2021, while their search advertising revenue approximately tripled during the same period.
Google initially opposed the release of these financial figures, contending that it could impair their ability to negotiate future contracts. However, Judge Amit Mehta, presiding over the case, disagreed with this argument.
