Reuters reports that Google payments to Apple to be the search engine on Safari create “a significant barrier to entry and expansion” for Google’s rivals in the search engine market, the UK markets regulator said in a report.
Apple received the “substantial majority” of the 1.2 billion pounds (about US$1.5 billion) that Google paid to be the default search engine on a variety of devices in the United Kingdom in 2019, according to the report. The U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, in its final report investigating online platforms and digital advertising, said the arrangements between Apple and Google create “a significant barrier to entry and expansion” for Google’s rivals in the search engine market.
In 2017, Apple changed the default provider of its web searches from Siri, iOS Search and macOS Spotlight from Bing to Google. “Switching to Google as the web search provider for Siri, Search within iOS and Spotlight on Mac will allow these services to have a consistent web search experience with the default in Safari,” Apple said in a statement. “We have strong relationships with Google and Microsoft and remain committed to delivering the best user experience possible.”
