Google spent around $26.3 billion in 2021 to remain the default search engine in multiple browsers, phones, and platforms, testimony in the US vs. Google antitrust trial has revealed.
The figure came out during the US Justice Department’s cross-examination of Google’s search head, Prabhakar Raghavan, reports The Verge.
The $26.3 billion amount was made public after a debate between the tech company and Judge Amit Mehta over “whether the figure should be redacted”.
“Mehta has begun to push for more openness in the trial in general, and this was one of the most significant new pieces of information to be shared openly,” the report mentioned late on Friday.
In its latest quarterly earnings report this week, Google said that its Search and other advertising revenues of $44 billion were up 11 percent, led again by growth in retail.
YouTube advertising revenues of $8 billion in the quarter were up 12 percent, driven by both brand advertising and direct response.
The company’s entire ad business — which also includes YouTube ads — made a bit under $90 billion in profit in the last year.
It means that Google is giving up about 16 percent of its search revenue and about 29 percent of its profit to those distribution deals, the report mentioned.
The New York Times recently reported that Google’s deal to be the default search engine in Apple Safari across Google products cost the company about $18 billion in 2021.
