Google's witness accidentally reveals important detail in antitrust trial

Google attorney 'visibly cringed' at revelation, according to reports

Google pays Apple 36% of its revenue generated from search advertising through the Safari browser, Google’s source accidentally revealed during the antitrust trial on Monday.

Kevin Murphy, a University of Chicago professor, disclosed the numbers during his testimony to support Google at the Justice Department's antitrust trial in Washington, according to reports by Bloomberg.

Google and Apple have previously refused to make this key detail of their long-running default search deal public.

Google attorney John Schmidtlein "visibly cringed" when Murphy disclosed this confidential information, according to Bloomberg Law.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleges that Google maintains an illegal monopoly over search, and this detail confirms how valuable default placements on iPhones are to the search leader.

It adds to a previous revelation that Google paid $26 billion for its default contracts, which are responsible for driving up its search advertising revenue.

Tech companies of all sizes are now looking to Judge Amit Mehta for access to a market they believe they have been barred from by Google's anticompetitive behaviour.

In September, an Apple executive testified that the default deal between Google and Apple was so lucrative that it prevented Apple from creating its own rival search engine.

It's still unclear what portion of Google's search advertising revenue comes from Safari, but given the popularity of Apple's devices it is likely to be significant.

Previously, Google's search head, Prabhakar Raghavan, disclosed the company paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to maintain its default search engine status across various platforms.

Last month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai testified that default deals "can make a difference", and can be "very valuable" if "done correctly". But he reiterated Google's chief defence: that partners like Apple enter these deals because Google has a superior search engine.

While the trial proceeds, Google continues to make profits from the deals. From 2022 to 2023, the search engine's revenue increased by $5 million, as reported by Search Engine Land. Nadella predicted Pichai attributed these gains to AI-driven innovations across Google products, including search.

In a statement, Pitchai said: "We are continuing to focus on making AI more helpful for everyone; there's exciting progress and lots more to come."

Judge Mehtra is expected to issue a ruling in the case in 2024.