Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said that unfair tactics used by Google led to its dominance as a search engine, tactics that in turn have thwarted his company’s rival programme, Bing.
Nadella testified in a packed Washington, DC, courtroom as part of the government’s landmark antitrust trial against Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
The Justice Department alleges Google has abused the dominance of its ubiquitous search engine to throttle competition and innovation at the expense of consumers, allegations that echo a similar case brought against Microsoft in the late 1990s.
Nadella said Google’s dominance was due to agreements that made it the default browser on smartphones and computers. He downplayed the idea that artificial intelligence or more niche search engines like Amazon or social media sites have meaningfully changed the market in which Microsoft competes with Google.
Google’s lead litigator John Schmidtlein questioned Nadella about instances when users switched from Bing to Google even when Microsoft’s search engine had default status on their devices — arguing that Microsoft made missteps with Bing that prevented it from rivalling Google.
When questioned, Nadella denied that Bing’s adoption of artificial intelligence had led to dramatic shifts in its market share. Google has argued that artificial intelligence programmes like chatbot ChatGPT have increased competition in the search engine market.
“Even the app store downloads are interesting but not … something you write home about,” Nadella said about Microsoft’s revamped search engine enhanced with artificial intelligence. Nadella was called to the witness stand as the biggest US antitrust trial in the past quarter-century moved into its fourth week of testimony before US District Judge Amit Mehta, who isn’t expected to issue a decision in the case until next year.
