Merakyat.org – In a recent testimony, DuckDuckGo’s CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, shed light on the challenges faced by the search engine in expanding its market presence. The primary obstacle, as highlighted by Weinberg, is Google’s substantial financial agreements with major companies, ensuring its position as the default search engine on various devices.
On Thursday, September 21, Weinberg took the stand to share that despite DuckDuckGo’s efforts to become the default search engine for several partner companies, they were consistently outbid by Google’s hefty contracts. “We generally saw a lot of interest,” Weinberg remarked. However, after three years of persistent attempts, he concluded that their endeavors were in vain due to the binding contracts Google had in place with these firms.
The U.S. government has posited that Google’s dominance in the search market, accounting for approximately 90% of it, is not merely a result of superior service. They allege that Google has been spending around $10 billion annually to secure its position as the default search engine on devices produced by giants like Apple and network providers such as AT&T. This dominant position in the search realm further solidifies Google’s stronghold in the lucrative advertising sector, thereby amplifying its profits.
In contrast, DuckDuckGo, which emphasizes user privacy, holds a mere 2.5% of the online search engine market. Their inability to secure a default position on devices manufactured by large corporations has significantly hindered their growth.
