Apple Declares No Plans to Develop a Search Engine and Reveals Google Paid $20 Billion in 2022 Alone

Apple recently submitted a statement to a federal court in Washington D.C., where Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Apple Services, stated that Apple has no plans to develop a search engine similar to Google.

In the statement, Eddy Cue explained why Apple will not develop its own search engine, including the significant financial and time investments required, the rapid development of artificial intelligence in search business, and economic risks Apple is wary of.

Here are the key points from Apple's court statement:

• Developing a search engine would cost Apple billions of dollars and take many years, diverting funds and employees from other areas of growth it is focused on.
• With the rapid evolution of the search business due to artificial intelligence, creating a search engine poses an economic risk for Apple, especially regarding future profitability.
• To establish a viable search engine business, Apple would need to sell targeted ads, which is not the company's core business and goes against its long-standing commitment to privacy.
• Apple lacks the necessary professionals and operational infrastructure to establish and run a successful search engine business.

Why is Apple conveying this message now? The reason lies in Google's antitrust case:

The core of Google's antitrust case includes search engine deals, where Google pays enormous fees to partners like Apple to be the default search engine in browsers. The exact amount of these recent payments was unclear, but in court documents, Eddy Cue revealed that Google paid approximately $20 billion to Apple in 2022 alone.

The court believes that Google's annual payments to Apple discourage Apple from developing its own search engine (despite reports that Apple was developing one), hindering market competition in the search engine sector.

By stating in court documents that it does not intend to develop a search engine and explaining why, Apple defends its dealings with Google, aiming to show the court that it is not avoiding the development of a search engine simply because of Google's payments.

Cue also mentioned that if the agreement with Google could not continue, it would weaken Apple's ability to continue offering products that best meet user needs.

Leaving the "dirty work" to Google while just collecting the money?

Apple's statement has sparked controversy, highlighting that developing a search engine business would necessitate selling targeted ads and collecting user data.

Apple has long advocated for privacy and security. Developing a search engine and collecting user data for targeted ads would contradict its statements. However, continuing transactions with Google and directing users to Google avoids this issue.

However, Google also needs to collect user data for targeted ads, making it clear that search engine deals inevitably involve user privacy data. Yet, the substantial payments from Google are hard to ignore, suggesting that, despite privacy concerns, Apple could indeed develop its search engine business to enrich its ecosystem.