Google paid $26 billion to be default search engine in 2021

Google paid $26.3 billion to other companies to ensure its search engine was the default on web browsers and mobile phones, a top company executive testified during the Justice Department's antitrust trial Friday.

The amount of payments Alphabet Inc.'s Google made to other companies for the default status - such as Apple Inc. for placement on the iPhone and other devices - has more than tripled since 2014, according to Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior executive responsible for both search and advertising.

Google's search advertising brought in $146.4 billion in revenue in 2021, a number that has also climbed over the same years, Raghavan said. The payments for the default were the company's biggest cost, he added.

Utterly bananas. Is it any wonder, then, that nobody can compete with Google? How are you supposed to compete as a search engine when Google shells the entire nominal GPD of Bosnia and Herzegovina every year to be the default everywhere where it matters? And that's 2021 - who knows how much it is now!