Microsoft who was desperate to get traction for their Bing search engine has told a US FTC hearing that they were willing to hide its search engine’s “Bing” on Apple devices in order to secure an agreement with the iPhone maker and unseat Google,
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella testified that Google is a monopoly when it comes to search.
On the stand in US v. Google, he said he’d do just about anything to make Bing better. Google’s lawyers said he should have been doing that for decades.
Currently Google controls the bulk of search on mobile phones spanning both Android and Apple.
Nadella described the lengths his company was willing to go to become Apple’s default search engine, a position that Google currently enjoys according to Bloomberg.
Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella arrives at the FTC hearing
That included offering “strategic flexibility” on how to brand the search engine and encouraging Apple to look at its technology independently of the Bing brand.
The testimony was part of a Department of Justice trial against Google, which the government says has used its search dominance to quash competition and hurt consumers. The company’s agreement with Apple is central to that case. Google pays billions of dollars a year to be the default option for Apple devices, and Microsoft has tried — and failed — to offer a more attractive deal.
Getting that default spot from Apple would be “game changing,” Nadella said. “Whomever they choose, they king-make.”
Nadella claimed that the idea that users have choice in internet search “bogus” because of contracts that make Google the default search engine on mobile devices.
During his testimony he took aim at the agreements that the US government’s case is challenging.
Washington accuses Google of preserving dominance in internet search by paying more than US$10bn annually to ensure it is the default search engine on mobile phones and computers.
Nadella claims that the unlock key to success is the ‘default setting’.
The discussion about dropping the Bing brand happened during negotiations in 2018. The arrangement would have meant Safari search results were powered by Bing, but under an alternative brand.
Nadella said he has tried to replace Google as Apple’s default search engine every year since he became CEO in 2014.
In earlier testimony he said Apple used Microsoft to “bid up the price” it gets paid by Google.
“Do you think Google would continue to pay Apple if there was no search competition? Why would they do that?” he said.
Apple services chief Eddy Cue has said he works with Google because Google the best search results.
Microsoft had even offered to sell Bing to Apple around 2020, Bloomberg News recently, Cue declined that overture.
