A Google witness let slip just how much it pays Apple for Safari search

Google gives Apple a 36% cut of all search advertising revenue from Safari, according to Professor Kevin Murphy of the University of Chicago. Google had fought to keep the number confidential, but Bloomberg reports that Murphy shared this figure during his testimony in Google’s defense today at the Google antitrust lawsuit.

Google has long paid to be the default search engine in Safari and other browsers like Firefox, spend $26.3 billion in 2021 just for the privilege. 18 billion dollars of this amount I went to Apple, but the details of the number’s origin have remained secret until now. Google tried to keep these details secret as the trial progresses, but fragments still seep in. According to Bloomberg, Google’s lawyer, John Schmidtlein, “visibly cringed when Murphy said the number.” Google declined to comment in an email to The edge; Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple’s Eddy Cue defended the agreement in September, claiming that Apple actually wanted a larger share of the money Google made from Safari traffic, but the companies opted for the lower figure Murphy revealed today. Although specific figures were discussed that day, they were only discussed behind closed doors, away from the ears of the press.

Updated November 13 at 4:38 p.m. ET: Updated to reflect that Google had no comment.