Bing makes more money for Apple than Microsoft, claims company executive

There is a rather important — and potentially game changing — case going on in the US. The case is between Google and the US Justice Department but it involves Apple, Microsoft and a lot of other biggies. The US is arguing that Google has made it impossible for other search engines to survive because it has made deals with companies like Apple, Mozilla and others. In other words, dominating the market using ‘unfair’ means and hence the antitrust case. One of the other search engines is Microsoft’s Bing. A big reason why the antitrust case has been filed is Apple using Google Search as default on iPhones. Google pays Apple an undisclosed sum — estimated to be close to $20 billion — a year for that. Apple does give users the option to change the default search engine to Microsoft Bing or a few other options.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Mikhail Parakhin, head of Microsoft’s advertising and web services, was called to testify in the case. Parakhin said that “Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does.” He does have a point as Bing is the alternative to Google Search and Apple could easily negotiate more money from Google or it could end up with Bing.
Parakhin also said that Microsoft has tried to get Apple to use Bing. “We are always trying to convince Apple to use our search engine.” The report also reveals that two years ago — in 2021 — Microsoft did have meetings with Apple to convince the iPhone maker to use Bing. However, clearly that didn’t lead to anything as Google Search is still the default engine on iPhones.
Apple’s senior executive Eddy Cue was also called to testify in the trial. His — and Apple’s — reason was simple that Google Search is simply the best and that’s why Apple uses it as the default engine. Over the next few days, there will be a lot of details that will emerge