👉 Background: Google was initially known as the search engine that started back in 1998. But under its parent company, Alphabet Inc , it owns Gmail, GDrive, Google Maps, Android and of course its unproven AI tool, Gemini.

👉 What happened: Earlier this year, Google was found guilty of monopolising the online search market, as it processes over 90% of global search queries. Now, the US Justice Department is requesting a judge to force Google to sell off Chrome as they claim that Chrome helps Google grow its control over the search market.

👉 What else: The Justice Department wants to limit Google’s competitive advantage, which is the squillions of pieces of data it has to stay ahead.

What's the key learning?

💡For businesses, controlling key access points to customer data has become a key differentiator. With this data, Google is able to improve its Search capability, Ad targeting and AI model.

💡Google spent over $26 billion USD in 2021 to acquire search traffic by paying phone and computer manufacturers (like Apple and Samsung) to be the default search engine on their devices. On top of that, it also owns the Chrome browser, which has around 61% of the global market share for web browsers.

💡It’s no surprise that Google’s Search business generated $175 billion USD in revenue last year. And this is exactly what the Department of Justice wants to break up.