Google CEO Sundar Pichai who was summoned to federal court on Tuesday confirmed that his company pays Apple 36 per cent of Safari search revenue and revealed that Samsung might be paid less than half of what the Cupertino giant is being paid.
Pichai was speaking while being summoned to federal court for the second time in two weeks to testify in an antitrust trial after Fortnite maker Epic Games filed a lawsuit against Google, according to PTI.
The latest testimony comes half a month after Pichai travelled to Washington DC to take the stand in a separate antitrust trial revolving around the US Justice Department's allegations that Google has stifled competition and innovation by abusing the power of its dominant search engine, reported PTI.
Reports suggested that an expert witness testifying for Google accidentally revealed Apple's 36 per cent cut from Google's search ad revenue in the Safari browser, following which Epic's lawyer Lauren Moskowitz asked Pichai if the amount was correct. In response, Pichai nodded, saying “that's correct.”
Moskowitz then asked Pichai if Google paid Samsung, the biggest seller of Android smartphones, only 16 per cent, which is less than half of what is paid to Apple.
To this Pichai replied that it was possible though he was not certain. “It’s like apples and oranges,” he added, according to CNBC.
Some reports said that the before the court went on a recess, the situation got tense with the back-and-forth between Pichai and Moskowitz lasting for “75 minutes”.
While Moskowitz seemed to portray Apple as one of Google's biggest partners rather than a major rival Pichai insisted that Google and Android compete fiercely with Apple. Android is given to Samsung and other smartphone
“We enable more affordable smartphones,” Pichai said, pointing out that Google gives away Android to Samsung and other smartphone makers for free in exchange for putting the company's search engine, Play Store etc on their devices. The Google CEO said it is very different from what Apple does.
– with inputs from agencies
