On February 25th, it was reported by foreign media that the U.S. Department of Justice has gradually made public the lawsuit files against Google for monopolizing the online search market, revealing more details in the process.
In the documents, Google argues that there are certain relationships between Microsoft and Apple, including negotiations for Microsoft to acquire Bing, which demonstrate that Google does face "competition" in the search field.
Google states that Microsoft proposed at least seven times to Apple, in different years (2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2020), to set Bing as the default search engine for the Safari browser.
"However, Apple has rejected this proposal every time due to issues with search quality."
Google asserts that Apple carefully evaluates the relative quality between Bing and Google each time and ultimately determines that Google is the superior default choice for Safari users, which is competitive behavior.
The disclosed documents also mention that Microsoft proposed in 2018 to "sell Bing to Apple or establish a joint venture related to Bing."
The documents further reveal that Apple's head of services, Eddy Cue, stated that Microsoft lagged behind Google in search quality, investment, and monetization, leading to the negotiations for acquiring Bing not progressing.
