Google paid $26.3 bn in 2021 to be default search engine across platforms: Report

Google spent around $26.3 billion in 2021 to remain the default search engine in multiple browsers, phones and platforms, testimony in the US vs. Google antitrust trial has revealed.

The figure came out during the US Justice Department’s cross-examination of Google’s search head, Prabhakar Raghavan, reports The Verge.

The $26.3 billion amount was made public after a debate between the tech company and Judge Amit Mehta over “whether the figure should be redacted”.

“Mehta has begun to push for more openness in the trial in general, and this was one of the most significant new pieces of information to be shared openly,” the report mentioned late on Friday.

In its latest quarterly earnings report this week, Google said that its Search and other advertising revenues of $44 billion were up 11 per cent, led again by growth in retail.

YouTube advertising revenues of $8 billion in the quarter were up 12 per cent, driven by both brand advertising and direct response.

The company’s entire ad business — which also includes YouTube ads — made a bit under $90 billion in profit in the last year.

It means that Google is giving up about 16 per cent of its search revenue and about 29 per cent of its profit to those distribution deals, the report mentioned.

The New York Times recently reported that Google’s deal to be the default search engine in Apple Safari across Google products cost the company about $18 billion in 2021.

Meanwhile, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai is set to testify in the US vs Google anti-trust case on October 30, sharing his side of the story on how Google’s search is successful owing to its own innovation and not deals with the big companies.

Pichai will testify in the ongoing antitrust trial in the suit brought by the US Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general.