What you need to know
- Apple says there's nothing Microsoft could offer to get it to switch from Google to Bing as the default search engine in Safari.
- The iPhone maker has listed Bing's poor search quality and inferior monetization capabilities as the main reasons it's maintaining the exclusive deal with Google.
- Generative AI could reshape the search landscape, but the future is uncertain at best right now.
It seems Apple has popped Microsoft's bubble and dwindled its hopes of Bing being its default search engine across its ecosystem over Google. According to StatCounter's latest report, Google dominates the search landscape with a whopping 91.04% while Bing only holds 3.86% of the market share.
Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google is a monopolist in the United States vs Google antitrust case, citing its massive scale, high capital costs, and more. Google has been wrapped up in an antitrust case for weeks. Perhaps the most interesting deduction from the case is that Apple and the average user share similar sentiments — Google is the preferred default search engine tool.
As you may know, Google pays Apple large sums of money to be the default search engine in Safari. Over the past few years, Google has been accused of breaking antitrust laws after allegedly paying approximately $15 billion to secure and assert its search engine dominance. In 2021, the company paid a jaw-dropping $26 billion to maintain its search engine as the default across Apple devices.
Apple says there's no other meaningful alternative. According to Apple Senior VP of services Eddy Cue:
“I don’t believe there’s a price in the world that Microsoft could offer us. They offered to give us Bing for free. They could give us the whole company.”
Based on Apple's sentiments and decision to maintain Google Search as the only viable option, Judge Mehta says it indicates the “market reality is that Google is the only real choice as the default GSE [general search engine].”
Why Apple will continue using Google as its default search engine in Safari over Bing
In case you missed it, Microsoft was on the brink of selling its Bing search engine to Apple in 2018. However, the plans fell through after it was spotted with critical search quality issues. Further building on this premise, Apple conducted a study in 2021 to determine the search quality between Google and Bing.
The findings left Bing with the shorter end of the stick, deeming it inferior to Google Search. It's worth noting that Bing outperformed Google Search in the desktop user interface category, but Google made up for this shortcoming across the rest of the benchmarks.
While appearing at Google's antitrust trial last year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella indicated that Google doesn't play fair with Bing. Nadella claimed the exclusive deal between Google and Apple negatively impacted Bing's growth and reach. Interestingly, the CEO stated that Microsoft could pay up to $15 billion annually to attract a similar deal with Apple. He concluded by indicating it would be "a game-changing opportunity" for Microsoft.
Microsoft proposed sharing 100% of its revenue from Bing with the iPhone maker to secure the deal, however, Apple raised concerns that it wouldn't be able to generate enough revenue because it was "horrible" at monetizing and advertising.
Aside from the recent challenges with its new flagship AI Overviews feature, Google generally spots a great reputation across the board (something Apple wants to maintain across its ecosystem).
Apple's Senior VP of services indicated:
"It's a great product for our customers, and we wanted our customers to know that they're getting the Google search engine. It's a symbiotic relationship. Google is the best search engine."
Additionally, getting into a partnership with Microsoft and using Bing as the default search engine in Safari would force Apple to drop its current deal with Google. A move that would "jeopardize its revenue" as highlighted by Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“AI may someday fundamentally alter search, but not anytime soon,” indicated Judge Amit Mehta. As you may know, Microsoft has been focused on integrating AI across its products and services, including Bing.
The search engine surpassed over 140 million daily active users in April, with Microsoft attributing the increasing interest in the platform to the AI razzle-dazzle. It's possible that this could give Bing the upper hand over Google, helping it topple its dominance.
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