Google CEO: "Dominance in Search Market Results from Innovation and Early Investment"

Appearing as a Witness in U.S. Antitrust Lawsuit

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who is facing an antitrust lawsuit for paying tens of billions of won to manufacturers in exchange for setting its services as the default search engine on smartphones and PCs, claimed on the 30th (local time) that "Google's search dominance is the result of innovation and early investment in the Chrome browser."

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. Photo by Asia Economy DB

At the trial held at the Washington DC Federal Court that day, CEO Pichai appeared as a witness and said, "We recognized early on that the browser is very important when users access the web," adding, "It was clear that improving the user experience would lead to more web usage and more search usage."

He continued, "When Chrome was launched in 2008, it challenged Microsoft's Internet Explorer and provided users with a better experience on the web," explaining that Internet Explorer provided updates once every 1 to 2 years, whereas Chrome released new versions every six weeks.

This lawsuit was filed by the U.S. Department of Justice against Google, alleging that it illegally maintained a monopoly on search engines by paying tens of billions of won to smartphone manufacturers and others, thereby restricting competition and consumer choice. According to DOJ data, Google paid manufacturers such as Samsung and Apple $26.3 billion (35 trillion won) in 2021 to have its services set as the default search engine on PCs and mobile devices.

CEO Pichai argued that products using Google as the default search engine, including Chrome and the Android smartphone operating system (OS), have promoted competition across the industry.

He acknowledged paying billions of dollars to smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung but explained that "these measures were to ensure that Google's internet search engine works well on devices from Apple and Samsung." He added, "The deal with Apple makes our services very smooth and easy to use," emphasizing, "The deal clearly had value."

Meanwhile, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, who appeared as a witness in this lawsuit on the 2nd, made statements supporting the DOJ's claims. He expressed concern that if Google's monopoly, maintained through paying tens of billions of won for default search engine settings on smartphones or web browsers, is allowed, Google's dominance in the artificial intelligence (AI) tools market could be further strengthened.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.