DOJ Wants Google to Sell Chrome and De-Google Android
Juli Clover (Hacker News, 9To5Google):
The United States Department of Justice wants Google to sell off its Chrome browser as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit, reports Bloomberg. Earlier this year, Google was found to have a search monopoly, and antitrust regulators have since been deciding on the actions that should be taken to address Google’s anticompetitive practices.
The DoJ plans to ask the court to force Google to sell Chrome, which is the most popular web browser in the world by a wide margin. Chrome’s integration with Google Search and other Google products has been cited as one of the factors limiting search competition.
Regulators also want Google to uncouple the Android operating system from other products like Google Search and the Google Play Store, both of which are apps installed on Android devices by default. It’s not clear how unbundling Android from Google Play would work as Google Play is the Android app store.
This doesn’t make sense to me, and I don’t even really understand what they think it would help with. If there are illegal behaviors, why not address them directly?
This was stupid when they tried to do this to Microsoft 25 years ago. It’s equally stupid to do this to Google.
If Google were forced to sell Chrome, who’d make the default web browser for Android? Android can’t ship without a default browser. And the DOJ wants Google to “uncouple” Android from the Google Play store? Allowing Google to keep Android but not make its own web browser or app store is just nonsense.
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Chrome is not a standalone business. Android is not a standalone business. They’re both just appendages of Google that serve only as distribution channels for the advertising Google shows in search results, and the money it makes from advertising and game commissions in the Play Store. It’s like saying I have to sell my left foot. It’s very valuable to me, but of no value to anyone on its own.
This proposal is kind of nuts since the only business model for web browsers is revenue share from search results. That’s how Edge, Safari, Firefox and Chrome make money.
So the only way it makes sense for anyone to buy Chrome is to make Google the default search, otherwise it’s not worth the investment.
The idea that Google would be broken up as a result of their loss in the antitrust trial against their Search monopoly was never going to happen. Instead, as I wrote last month, it was more like Negotiating 101. Start by putting the biggest ask out there, see how the market (including, notably, Google) reacts and go from there. Having read that particular room, it seems like the DoJ is now closing in on their actual opening proposal.
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The government would argue that consumers will benefit as they'll no longer be as locked into Google Search – especially if this is coupled with an order to end any default search agreements with other browser makers. But unless those other browser makers choose another search engine as the default, it feels like Google Search will not be impacted very much. It is interesting to think if that would impact the uptake and growth of Gemini and a few other Google products, such as their payment services, but that's not what is on trial here.
It's not clear who could pay what for Chrome. Bloomberg throws out the notion of OpenAI being one potential home, but would the government really want that? That would risk anointing – well, really entrenching – a king in a new field. OpenAI's main benefactor, Microsoft could acquire it, especially now that their own Edge browser is all-in on Chromium. But they would probably just use it to bolster not just Bing by also their own AI products and services. And that would be extremely awkward for the government as well.
Previously:
- The State of Mozilla
- Firefox at 20
- Autoenshittification, YouTube, and Disenshittify or Die
- Google App Store Monopoly Remedy
- Does Google Chrome Still Devastate Mac Battery Life?
- Chrome’s Manifest V3 and uBlock Origin
- Google Search and Ads Monopoly
- Chromium Browsers Preferencing *.google.com Domains
- Most Compatible With Google Chrome
- Cue Testimony in US v. Google
- Chrome Faster Than Safari in Speedometer Benchmark
