WASHINGTON: During the US Justice Department’s antitrust trial against Alphabet’s Google in US District Court in Washington, a Microsoft executive, Jonathan Tinter, testified on Friday that Apple and other smartphone manufacturers declined revenue-sharing agreements that could have boosted Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Instead, they chose to keep Google as the default search engine on their devices.
The US DOJ has accused Google of paying $10 billion annually to wireless carriers and smartphone makers to ensure that Google search remains the default option on their devices. The government alleges that Google has abused its search monopoly and certain aspects of search advertising.
Microsaft Bing Faces Challenges in Securing Default Status
Tinter noted that Bing has faced difficulties in securing default status on smartphones sold in the United States, resulting in a smaller user base and, consequently, lower-quality search results.
Under questioning from the Justice Department, Tinter revealed that Bing had never been the default search engine on any Android or Apple smartphone sold in the US over the past decade, despite Microsoft offering to provide more than 100% of revenue or even more to its partners.
During cross-examination, a Google lawyer probed Tinter on whether it was financial incentives or the quality of Bing’s search that prevented it from displacing Google as the default search engine on smartphones and other devices. The lawyer referenced an analysis conducted by Keystone Strategies in 2010, which found that users who tried Bing used it for a very brief period.
“The number of Bing users who remained loyal was in the single digits,” the attorney stated. “More than half of new users used Bing mobile for just one day before switching,” he added. However, Tinter did not agree with this assessment.
