Apple justifies the choice of Google as the default engine by its popularity
Google is indeed the most popular search engine in the world, but that's also partly because it's Apple's default search engine, which weighs heavily in the world with its 1.65 billion dollars and active devices with the latest news . Imagine the effect on DuckDuckGo's popularity if this search engine suddenly became the default in a future version of Safari.
Beyond popularity, Jane Horvath carefully avoids recalling that Google pays Apple a large sum every year to maintain its position as the default search engine. It must be said that this agreement between the two companies is confidential and the exact amount is not known, but it has been estimated between 8 and 10 billion dollars per year. An estimate recently made by the US Department of Justice as part of its investigation into a potential anti-competitive practice.
Google's payment is recorded by Apple in the catch-all category of services, which brought in around 55 billion in the year 2020. Giving up Google would cause a net drop in this figure, or at least a drop in its growth, constant and strong for several years now. Let us add that Tim Cook was questioned on this same question in 2018 and the CEO then replied that their search engine is the best, which is an argument already more convincing than that of popularity.
The director also echoed Apple's speech on its advertising monitoring policy and on the new obligations imposed by iOS 14. Nothing new, however, compared to what was said yesterday, both by Tim Cook and by A press release.