About a year and a half ago, Google started auction the chance to be one of the search engines used by European users could choose standard on Android devices. And over the past year and a half, we’ve seen some well-known ad giants continue to use those expensive slots.
This auction was the result of one massive antitrust case led by European authorities in 2018. Aside from fining the company $ 5 billion, regulators also demanded that Google offer users a choice when launching their Android phones in regards to the browser or search app that they would prefer to use, rather than require them to use Google’s. Google obligated, but in the most Google way possible: by requiring competitors to fight it out financially for a shot at one of four search boxes on the coveted Android choice screen.
The Results for the final auction are not very promising. When it comes to the choices, that’s the truth tens of millions of Android users will largely choose between one of four non-Google options when it comes to search: Bing, which is owned by Microsoft, GMX, which is owned by the German digital behemoth United Internet AG, or the ironically named PrivacyWall, which is owned by a big adtech outfit called Social game media
Such as TechCrunch points out, the one thing all these players have in common is making huge profits from following and targeting users in search results, in a way that’s strikingly similar to Google. Meanwhile, it’s worth noting that despite these other options, the search giant is still a search giant in the region. Apart from swallowing the majority of the international search engine market, Google pretty much takes it more than 85% of the market share in the Member States of the European Union.
When asked about the European Union’s failure to curb Google’s killer behavior in the region, some of Google’s search competitors previously stated told the Washington Post that this was the natural result of having Google solve its own problems. In other words, the EU authorities literally allow Google charge its rivals for the privilege of appearing in the Android selection menu – disputing the company’s dominance in the process. Who did they think would win?
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