Google Monopoly - Go directly to Jail and do not pass go?

Hey,

If someone were to ask you; where do you search for information? Google is the first name that comes to mind, and for good reason. Google’s dominance in the search engine industry means it holds a global market share of 81%, increasing to 87% in the USA, beating out the next biggest competitor, Bing (Microsoft) which holds 11% market share globally. To be frank, Google have almost achieved global domination ??

But, is Google’s search empire about to start crumbling? Perhaps, based on the recent federal ruling by a US District Court that Google violated US antitrust law, is a monopolist, and is acting so to maintain its monopoly. The case brought against Google claimed the company had spent billions of dollars securing exclusive agreements to maintain its dominant position as the default search engine on smartphones and web browsers.

So, let's examine how Google got here and whether this will mark the beginning of the fall of Google's Search Empire.

Pay to Play - The Road to Monopoly ??

So how did Google become the most accessible search engine? By Choice? Maybe, or did we have any choice to begin with?

To become almost everyone's number one choice, Google paid Apple $20 billion in 2022 to be the default search engine on iPhone browsers and provided a kickback of search ad revenue from the Safari browser.

This unholy alliance of Google and Apple made Google Search become the easiest, most accessible search engine for a large percentage of the US market and Google did not plan on letting anyone in on their party because all of these contracts were of course exclusive.

See you in Court ??????

So what did the US legal system have to say about these exclusive contracts giving Google access to millions of users?

Order, order, order please stand and we find the defendant…

Guilty ??

“After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly”; was the verdict by Judge Amit Mehta ruling in favor of the Department of Justice, writing that Google has maintained a monopoly in the search engine market.

What Happens Next???

This is actually unclear for now, as this particular case was focussed on determining Google’s liability and not what the penalties (if any) should be and as you know it's not over until the fat lady sings so Google has of course stated that they will be appealing the decision.

Can’t you guys at Twigeo foresee the future ???

Fine here are some possible scenarios:

• Fines - Google may face significant financial penalties, similar to previous cases against tech giants.
• Business model changes / restructuring services - Google is forced to give up exclusive deals with tech manufacturers and browsers. Or in an extreme case separating parts of its business.
• Changes to services - consumers may notice differing availability of services, for example getting access to a wider range of search options.
• Increased competition in search advertising - with stronger competition, companies are encouraged to provide better products and services to their users. In turn advertisers will flock to those platforms where users frequent and we might hopefully see more competitive pricing between publishers.
• Further antitrust suits - the ruling in the US may set a precedent for the rest of the world to take similar action against Google, most notably in the EU where they have already faced penalties.

As of right now, it’s business-as-usual in the Search Marketing team at Twigeo. We’re still building, optimizing, and growing SEM campaigns for our clients. We’ll be keeping our ears to the ground to make sure we’re up to date with the latest with Google and changes that impact our partners. Stay tuned for more!

And this is not the last legal battle that is on the agenda for Google. They are facing another antitrust trial, starting in September, this one focusing on whether they have illegally monopolized digital advertising technology.

But that's another story for another time ??