Microsoft Says Apple Used Bing Offer as Google 'Bargaining Chip'

A Microsoft executive said the company has tried for years to displace Alphabet's Google as the default web browser on iPhones, but that Apple never seriously considered switching to Microsoft's Bing and was content to use it as a 'bargaining chip' with the search giant. From a report: 'Apple is making more money on Bing existing than Bing does,' Mikhail Parakhin, the head of Microsoft's advertising and web services, testified during the US government's antitrust trial against Google in Washington. 'We are always trying to convince Apple to use our search engine.' Parakhin, who joined Microsoft in 2019 from Russian search engine Yandex NV, said Microsoft met with Apple as recently as 2021 to discuss a potential switch to Bing, but didn't make any progress.

In response to Google's lawyers, Parakhin said it was 'uneconomical for Microsoft to invest more' in technology for the mobile search market. 'Unless Microsoft gets a more significant, or firmer guarantee of distribution, it makes it uneconomical to invest.' Apple has used Google as the default search engine in its Safari browser since 2003 in exchange for a share of the advertising revenue earned through searches made on its devices.

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