Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadella, testified in the Google antitrust trial, claiming that the big tech company's unfair tactics helped it become the dominant search engine, subsequently hindering the success of his company's rival, Bing. Following the hearing, Steve DelBianco, president & CEO of NetChoice, took to Twitter to express his thoughts about the testimony.
"Spent the morning in courtroom where our government wants to force Apple to make Bing the default search engine on iPhones. Microsoft CEO testimony established 2 things: 1. Microsoft invested in mobile search early on, but failed to keep up with Google search quality. And 2. Users change defaults easily when they want to use another browser or search engine. This case is not about consumers, but is all about our government intervening in a market that works very well for consumers today," DelBianco tweeted.
According to the New York Times, most of Nadella's Oct. 2 testimony focused around the fact that Google has made it impossible for Bing, and other competitors alike, to compete in the market. According to Nadella, Microsoft has not been able to overcome Google’s use of multibillion-dollar deals to make itself the default search engine on web browsers and smartphones.
According to The Verge, Google's representative, John Schmidtlein, argued that Bing's inferiority as a search engine was not solely due to Google's actions but rather stemmed from Microsoft's mismanagement of search and mobile products over two decades. He emphasized that Google's defense rested on the legality of building a superior search engine and contended that Google had not engaged in any unlawful practices.
Schmidtlein also highlighted Microsoft's historical failures, including MSN Search in 1998, the decline of Internet Explorer, the unsuccessful Windows Phone venture, frequent rebranding and restructuring of Microsoft's search products and problematic agreements to bundle Bing with BlackBerry and Nokia phones, according to The Verge. Throughout the extensive critique, Nadella often acknowledged the accuracy of Schmidtlein's assertions. Schmidtlein's central argument was that Google had surpassed Microsoft through greater investment and more effective execution rather than any unfair tactics.
This testimony comes just three weeks after the Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged Google of using its partnerships with manufacturers of mobile devices, computers and browsers in an illegal manner to stifle competition within the online search market, as NPR reported. According to the DOJ, these collaborations have allowed Google to designate its search engine as the primary service on a significant number of consumer electronic devices, including smartphones. This practice has consequently deterred users from investigating alternative search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo and others, and the DOJ believes Google needs to be held accountable.
DelBianco is president and CEO of NetChoice, a company that launched in 2001 and currently works on behalf of consumers to make the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.