Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella testified in a US court on Monday, criticizing Google’s dominance in the search engine market and accusing the company of engaging in anti-competitive practices. The US Department of Justice is currently trying to convince a federal judge that Google has unlawfully paid billions of dollars to Apple and others to maintain its monopoly.
Nadella stated that Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, has been attempting to gain market share against Google since 2009 but has been unable to compete due to Google’s agreements with Apple. Nadella referred to Google as “dominant” rather than simply “popular.” This trial is considered the largest antitrust case against a major tech company in the US since Microsoft faced similar allegations more than two decades ago regarding its Windows operating system.
Nadella supported the government’s argument that Google’s control over vast amounts of user data as the leading search engine gives it an unfair advantage in attracting advertisers and users. He also emphasized the importance of distribution for a successful search engine and revealed that Microsoft was willing to pay Apple a significant amount to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone. However, Apple has maintained its partnership with Google and receives substantial revenue from the company.
Despite Bing’s continued investment and hope for a “paradigm shift” or government intervention to restructure the industry, Nadella acknowledged that Bing remains a small player. He also expressed doubts that the emergence of ChatGPT, an AI technology integrated into Bing earlier this year, would threaten Google’s dominance in the search business. Nadella expressed concerns that Google’s position in search could enable it to exert control over content providers critical to training generative AI models.
In conclusion, Nadella’s testimony shed light on the challenges Microsoft faces in competing with Google and emphasized the need for fair competition in the search engine market.