Google paid Samsung $8 billion to make the Play Store default on Galaxy devices

A few days ago, it was revealed that Google is sharing the advertising revenue it gets from Google Search with smartphone brands to make them release more software updates and maintain smartphones better. However, it has now been revealed that the company is also paying brands, including Samsung, to make some apps as default on Android devices.

Samsung accounts for more than half of Google Play’s revenue

according to Report from BloombergGoogle paid Samsung $8 billion over four years to make some of its apps default to Galaxy smartphones and tablets. The internet search giant has apparently pushed Samsung to have Google Assistant, Google Play Store and Google Search be the default voice assistant, app store and internet search engine apps, respectively. James Kouloutouros, Google’s vice president of partnerships, testified during the ongoing antitrust trial against Google that the company pays Android device makers to keep its apps on the home screen.

The Google executive testified while being questioned by a lawyer hired by Epic Games Inc. In San Francisco. Apparently, Google made this plan to prevent Android OEMs from offering competing services for Android smartphones. For example, Samsung has its own voice assistant (Bixby) and app store (Galaxy Store). Samsung also has partnerships with Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft, and it’s possible that Bing will be the default search engine on Galaxy phones and tablets. If non-Google apps become the default apps on Samsung devices, it will hurt Google’s control over the Android ecosystem.

James Kouloutouros also revealed that Samsung took more than half of the revenue from the Google Play Store. The company’s advertising revenue sharing plan is Which bears the code name Banyan Project. It stifles competition by preventing third-party app stores from popularizing the Android ecosystem. This explains why Samsung stopped developing many of its own apps, including Bixby, Play Store, and Samsung Messages.