(AOF) – The competition authority in Japan said on Monday that it had opened an investigation into the Google search engine for a possible violation of anti-monopoly rules. The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) said it was investigating whether Google violated Japan’s antimonopoly law by paying part of its revenue to Android smartphone makers on the condition that they not install software. rival search engines.
The move follows similar investigations by competition authorities in the European Union, the United States and other countries.
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Sector sheet – Internet
An increasingly competitive online search for Google
Google has dominated online search for more than two decades. It earns more than half of its revenue from advertising on its search engine. The second player, Bing, owned by Microsoft, remains far behind, with less than 9% of the global market. However, Bing benefits from a huge advantage: Microsoft’s results do not depend closely on the performance of its search engine, but rather on its sales of software and services to businesses with its Azure branch. The group can therefore be more agile and take risks. Other serious competitors are gaining strength. Amazon’s search engine for finding products shows a jump in advertising revenue. Likewise, the TikTok application is increasingly used by young people to search for information.