Suara.com – Google is currently undergoing a legal case with Epic Games over allegations of monopoly. In the middle of the trial, a new fact emerged about how Google maintains its dominance in the Android market share.
It has been revealed that Google paid Samsung up to 8 billion US dollars or around Rp. 124 trillion for a four year period. This was done to maintain its main products such as Google Search, Google Assistant, and Google Play Store on Samsung Galaxy phones.
Even though Samsung also has similar products that it makes itself, for example the Bixby voice assistant and the Galaxy Store application store, as quoted from Gizmochina, Thursday (16/11/2023).
Google’s Vice President for Partnerships, James Kolotouros, stated that Samsung greatly contributes to Google Play Store revenue, where the South Korean company contributes more than half.
He used this as a reason for how important Samsung is in the Google ecosystem.
This collaboration between Samsung and Google is called a program called Project Banyan. This initiative is aimed at maintaining Google’s dominance in Android phones.
He emphasized that this project not only benefits Google in terms of maintaining applications. Because the company also shares its income with Samsung or other cellphone brands.
In 2020, for example, Google is proposing to spend US$ 2.9 billion or around Rp. 45 trillion to maintain its services on Android phones.
This figure is claimed to increase to 4.5 billion US dollars, around Rp. 69 trillion, if Android cellphone companies continue to use Google products as default applications.
Not only cellphone manufacturers, Google said that this collaboration also applies to devices made by non-Android OEMs to wireless operators.