Google CEO defends paying Apple and others to make Google the default search engine on devices

abcnews.go.com:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has finally taken the stand in the biggest U.S. antitrust case in a quarter century

WASHINGTON — Testifying in the biggest U.S. antitrust case in a quarter century, Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended his company’s practice of paying Apple and other tech companies to make Google the default search engine on their devices, saying the intent was to make the user experience “seamless and easy.’’

The Department of Justice contends that Google — a company whose very name is synonymous with scouring the internet — pays off tech companies to lock out rival search engines to smother competition and innovation. According to court documents the government entered into the record last week, the payments came to more than $26 billion in 2021, a year in which operating expenses for Google's parent company, Alphabet, were nearly $68 billion.

Google contends that it dominates the market because its search engine is better than the competition's. «We are working very, very hard for any given query we provide the best experience,'' Pichai said. “That’s always been our true north.''

Born in India, Pichai joined joined Google in 2004 from the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Before becoming CEO, he helped develop Google Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, and was named to the company's top job in 2015. He is also CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet. Under his leadership, the company's net income ballooned to $60 billion last year from $19.5 billion in 2016, the first full year of Alphabet's operation.

As Google's star defense witness, Pichai testified Monday that Google's payments to phone manufacturers and wireless phone companies were partly meant to nudge them into making costly security upgrades and