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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has confirmed the company is ready to pay billions of dollars to Apple to make Bing the default search engine on Safari. Nadella also said Google’s business practices are hurting competition in the search market.
Google and Bing are two major rivals in the online search industry. Microsoft has spent piles of money to make Bing a worthy competitor for Google, including using ChatGPT technology and incorporating advanced AI capabilities into it. Despite efforts, Google’s reign in the market seems unshakable, as the tech firm currently holds over 90% of the world’s search engine market share.
Google is also the default search engine on almost all devices available. Besides Android, which is a Google product, the company paid $20 billion to Apple to stay as the default search engine on Safari in 2022. Google’s reign has prompted the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to open a probe into the company’s business practices. Satya Nadella has now appeared in court to testify before a judge about the case.
Satya Nadella says Bing could replace Google on Apple devices
According to Nadella, Google’s status as the default search engine on devices is crushing Bing as a business and a product. He added Bing can’t keep up with Google without scale and user data.
Microsoft’s plans to make Bing a more competitive and bigger product ends with Apple. Nadella said Microsoft is ready to pay Apple $15 billion a year to make Bing the default search engine on Safari.
A part of the DOJ probe into Google focused on Apple’s payments. In 2022, DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer told a federal judge, “Google invests billions in defaults, knowing people won’t change them. They are buying default exclusivity because defaults matter a lot.”
Given that Google paid $20 billion to Apple in 2022, Microsoft would have a hard time convincing the Cupertino company to make Bing the default search engine. It’s also unlikely that the lawsuit could force Google to stop paying billions to Apple.
Microsoft’s decision to embrace AI and add it to Bing revived the company’s hope for competing with Google. However, ChatGPT and Bard are making it harder for Bing to compete. Soon, Apple could also join the AI bandwagon with a ChatGPT-like service.