Google Uses Its Deep Pockets To Secure Gemini A Spot On Samsung Devices
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Google’s so thirsty for Gemini users it’s paying Samsung substantial sums to pre-install the AI
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Summary
- Court testimony in the US Department of Justice antitrust trial revealed Google is paying Samsung Electronics an “enormous sum of money” every month to pre-install its Gemini AI app on Samsung devices.
- This practice echoes Google’s significant payments to Apple for default search engine status and is part of a pattern of paying tech giants for pre-installation and default placement of Google services, which have faced legal challenges.
- The payments and the ongoing trial underscore Google’s market dominance and follow recent findings that Google holds illegal monopolies in areas including online advertising technology.
It’s an open secret that Google pays Apple top dollar to maintain its position as the default search engine on Safari. The move, which eventually resulted in the US Department of Justice calling Google a bully, is so dominant that it leaves competitors like Microsoft’s Bing with no chance to compete.
According to information uncovered via court documents last year, Google paid Apple a whopping $20 billion in 2022 alone, making up roughly 16.75 percent of the iPhone-maker’s operating income for the year.
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Alas, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. This time around, Google has been found paying a different tech giant money to favor its AI app.
As highlighted by Bloomberg News after going through court testimonies in the ongoing US Department of Justice antitrust trial against Google, the tech giant has been paying Samsung an “enormous sum of money” on a monthly basis to pre-install Gemini on Samsung phones and other devices.
The practice violates antitrust laws
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Google’s payments to Samsung began in January this year, according to the testimony of Peter Fitzgerald, Google’s vice president of platforms and device partnerships. Fitzgerald testified that the arrangement between the two (and the accompanying monthly payments) is expected to run for at least two years, and as part of it, Google pays Samsung a set amount for each device with Gemini pre-installed, alongside an undefined percentage of the revenue Google generates from advertisements within the app. Remedies are yet to be announced.
This isn’t the first time Google has been found paying Samsung off. Similar to its deal with Apple, Google also paid Samsung hefty sums to ensure its default search engine status on Samsung’s devices. Separately, Google was also found to be monopolizing its grip on the Android ecosystem by paying Samsung roughly $8 billion to ensure Google Search, the Play Store, and Google Assistant were the default options on Samsung’s mobile devices between 2020 and 2023.
This comes soon after Google was found to be an illegal monopolist in the online advertising technology sector, with the US Department of Justice’s sweeping remedies likely to include measures that force Google to divest several key areas of its online platforms and services.
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