With mobile web browsers, the search engine is almost always Google. This is because Google pays smartphone manufacturers big bucks for that advantage. In 2021, Google even paid Apple USD26 billion (~RM116.26 billion) to become the default Safari browser search engine. But clearly, it's not just because of the money.
According to Apple Senior VP of services Eddy Cue (via Windows Central), Apple prefers Google for its Safari browser because it's simply the best search engine. Moreover, he said there's nothing Microsoft can offer to change his company's decision. For your info, Google has a current market share of 91.04%, while Microsoft Bing sits at 3.86%. The number jumps up to 95.19% vs 0.73% for mobile devices,, so you can see how huge the gap is.
Of course, you can argue that Google's dominance is due to it paying off phone manufacturers to keep Google as the default search engine. However, you can't deny that Google's search engine provides the results to match user expectations. Furthermore, it was confirmed in 2023 that Google now shares 36% of its search engine revenue with Apple to be Safari's default search engine. Interestingly, Android manufacturers only get up to 12% of revenue share.
So, now you know why web browsers almost always (besides Microsoft Edge, of course) have Google as the default search engine. Do you feel that makes Google anti-competitive and a monopoly? Or does it not matter because Google is too good to give up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave for more tech news like this.
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