About a year and a half ago, Google started auctioning the chance of being one of the search engines that European users could choose as default on Android devices. And in the last year and a half, we’ve seen some familiar giants targeting ads continue to take those expensive slots.
This auction was the result of a massive antitrust case led by European authorities in 2018. In addition to slamming the company with a $ 5 billion penalty, regulators also demanded that Google give users a choice when launching their Android phones on their browser or app. search they would rather use, rather than asking them to use their own Google. Google bound, but in the most Google way possible: asking competitors to take it financially for the chance to be featured in one of the four search slots on the coveted Android screen of choice.
result for the last auction they are less than promising. When it comes to elections, the truth is that tens of millions Android users will largely choose one of four non-Google options when it comes to search: Bing, Microsoft-owned GMX – which is owned by the German digital behemoth United Internet AG, or ironically called PrivacyWall, which is owned by a major adtech outfit called Social Media.
Like TechCrunch highlights, the only thing all these players have in common is reaping huge profits from tracking and targeting users throughout the search, in a way that is strikingly similar to Google. In the meantime, it is worth noting that, despite these other options, the search giant is still, well, a search giant in the region. Besides swallowing most of them From the international search engine market, Google takes quite a lot over 85% of market share in the Member States of the European Union.
When asked about the European Union’s failure to reduce Google’s defeat behavior in the region, some of Google’s previous search competitors said Washington Post that this was the natural result of letting Google solve its own problems. In other words, the EU authorities are literally leaving Google load rivals for the privilege of appearing in the Android selection menu – and challenges the dominant position of the company in the process. Who did they think would win?
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