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As Google CEO Sundar Pichai tells it, his company has always been on the side of consumers. It has paid billions to other industry giants, including Apple and Samsung, he said, to make sure Google\u2019s internet search engine worked as well as it should on those companies\u2019 devices.<\/p>\n
Testifying on Monday in Google\u2019s landmark antitrust trial, Pichai contradicted the US Justice Department\u2019s claims that his company\u2019s huge payments to companies such as Apple to be the default internet search option on their popular devices represent its unchecked monopoly power. Pichai said he had been worried that Apple, in particular, would make it more difficult to use Google\u2019s search on its devices, and he believed Google had to pay to make sure that wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
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Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai as he arrived at the federal courthouse in Washington on Monday.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cGiven that Apple designs the experience, it wasn\u2019t clear how they would change the experience if the financial incentive wasn\u2019t there,\u201d Pichai said.<\/p>\n Pichai was the highest profile witness to testify so far in the 10-week trial. The monopoly trial \u2014 the first involving a tech giant of the modern internet era \u2014 reflects increasing efforts in Washington to rein in the power of Big Tech.<\/p>\n The US Federal Trade Commission has filed its own antitrust lawsuit against Facebook\u2019s parent company Meta, arguing it stifled nascent competitors, and Amazon, which it says squeezes small merchants and favours its own services. On Monday, President Joe Biden was to sign an executive order laying out the government\u2019s first rules for the artificial intelligence systems that Silicon Valley companies have raced to build.<\/p>\n Pichai opted to stand at a lectern to deliver his testimony rather than sitting at the witness stand as he tried to undercut claims by the Justice Department and state attorneys general that Google stifled competition through default-distribution deals with companies such as Apple and Samsung.<\/p>\n Google paid $US26.3 billion ($41.3 billion) for its search engine to be the default selection on mobile and desktop browsers in 2021, according to Google\u2019s internal data presented during the trial. A majority of that, about $US18 billion, went to Apple, The New York Times<\/em> has reported.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s competitors testified earlier in the trial that the payments effectively made it impossible for them to compete. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the search giant\u2019s power was so significant that the internet was really the \u201cGoogle web\u201d and that its relationship with Apple was \u201coligopolistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Pichai, who is also CEO of Google\u2019s parent company, Alphabet, told a different story. He joined Google in 2004 and led the development of its Chrome web browser, which debuted in 2008. In 2014, he began leading product and engineering for many of the company\u2019s core products, including Search, Maps, Play and Android. The next year, he was named CEO.<\/p>\n For 45 minutes, Google\u2019s lead litigator in the trial, John Schmidtlein, guided Pichai through questions about his almost two decades at the company, which has intersected with many of the products and deals at the heart of the case.<\/p>\n He said that in negotiations with Apple to be the default search engine on its devices, he was told by Eddy Cue, an Apple executive, that the deal was \u201cvery competitive.\u201d He said Cue acknowledged there was \u201ctension\u201d in the relationship between the two companies because Apple\u2019s revenue share from the deal, which was proportional to the traffic it sends to Google, had fallen.<\/p>\n Pichai said he was worried that if Google did not improve the financial terms of the deal, Apple would degrade the experience of using its search engine.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a lot of uncertainty about what would happen if the deal didn\u2019t exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pichai discussed how products that had Google as the default search engine, including the popular Chrome browser and the Android smartphone operating system, had boosted competition across the industry.<\/p>\n When Chrome was released in 2008, Pichai said it challenged the \u201cstagnant\u201d incumbent, Microsoft\u2019s Internet Explorer, and provided users with a better experience on the web. Internet Explorer offered product updates annually or once every two years, he said, while Chrome released new versions every six weeks.<\/p>\n He testified that Android\u2019s direct competition with Apple had improved all smartphones, leading to better screens and interfaces as well as increased usage in applications and Google\u2019s search engine.<\/p>\n His comments appeared to be aimed at addressing the legal standard both sides say applies to the case. If the government can prove that Google\u2019s conduct has resulted in diminishing competition, Google must defend itself by showing its behaviour was justified because of ways that it bolsters competition.<\/p>\n