Google currently maintains the title of being the most widely used search engine in the world. There are many claims about how Google has achieved this status after going through various processes. Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan responded to these claims with numbers.

Google paid these amounts to be the default search engine

Google’s Senior Vice President, Prabhakar Raghavan, stated on Friday that Google paid $26.3 billion in 2021 to maintain its default search engine status and acquire traffic. Most likely, the largest portion of this amount went to Apple, to continue being the default search option on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices, where Google has been paying substantial amounts for years.

Raghavan, in the ongoing antitrust case against the company by the Department of Justice, stated that Google generated $146.4 billion in revenue from search network ads in 2021, and he put the $26 billion paid for the default position into perspective for the default option. The executive explained that the amount paid for the default status is the most costly part of acquiring traffic.

Raghavan did not specify how much of the $26.3 billion went to Apple. However, an estimate by the asset management company Bernstein suggested that Google could pay Apple up to $19 billion this year for the default privilege.

A slide presented in court revealed that in 2014, company paid $7.1 billion for the default position while earning $47 billion in search revenue. Raghavan stated that Google’s overall payments for the default search engine increased almost fourfold from 2014 to 2021, while search ad revenue increased (roughly) threefold.

Google opposed the disclosure of the numbers, arguing that it would harm its ability to negotiate future contracts. However, Judge Amit Mehta did not agree with this view, and that’s how we are able to present these figures now.