Google Pays Apple 20 Billion Dollars to Be Safari's Default Search Engine

In 2022, Google paid Apple a whopping 20 billion dollars to become the default search engine on Safari, Apple's native browser accessible on all Apple products.

This enormous sum was revealed through a publicly available U.S. government documents related to an antitrust lawsuit against Google.

In fact, Google has been paying Apple billions annually to remain the default search engine option in Safari.

However, both Google and Apple kept the payment amounts confidential until these public documents were released.

Payment Amount Increased in 2022

The 20 billion dollars Google paid Apple in 2022 equates to more than 1 billion dollars per month, according to Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Apple Services.

Previously, in 2021, the agreed amount was around 15 billion dollars. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) argues that Google relies on these large payments to ensure that its search engine is accessible on all Apple products.

The federal authorities contend that the agreement between Google and Apple perpetuates Google’s illegal monopoly on online search and represents about 90% of the overall market share.

The DOJ Lawsuit Claims Google Has Hindered Competition in Online Search

The antitrust lawsuit filed by the DOJ alleges that Google's agreements with Apple, as well as other similar deals, could enable Google to obstruct competition and monopolize online search and advertising.

This is because Google, as the default search engine option in Safari, can outperform other search engines like Microsoft's Bing.

The final arguments of this lawsuit are scheduled for this week, with a decision expected to come out this year.

If Google loses the lawsuit, it will have to stop paying Apple to remain the default search engine on Safari.

Microsoft Once Tried to Strike a Similar Deal

According to the public documents, Microsoft had repeatedly attempted to negotiate with Apple for Bing to become the default search engine on Safari.

Moreover, Microsoft offered to give Apple 90% of the advertising revenue generated by Bing. However, Eddy Cue stated that Apple preferred Google as its default search engine in Safari because Google was deemed to have superior capabilities and quality compared to Bing.

In 2020, when Apple's deal was under DOJ antitrust scrutiny, Microsoft continued to push Apple to replace Google with Bing as Safari's default search engine, offering to invest billions of dollars to take control of the search market and enhance Bing's search results.

However, Google managed to maintain its status as the default search engine in Safari, concerned about losing its deal with Apple and facing potential losses amounting to billions of dollars.