Google fined, investigated by EU, US for monopolistic practices

By Abdulkadir Gunyol

ISTANBUL (AA) - Google is on trial in the US for monopolizing digital advertising, while on Tuesday the search engine was fined in Europe for exploiting market dominance in search results.

Google generated 77% of its revenue from ads last year, reaching $237 billion out of $305 billion in total revenue, according to data from Statista compiled by Anadolu.

The legal challenge, filed by the US Justice Department, claims that Google dominates the digital advertising market and uses its dominance to block competition.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Google’s fine of €2.4 billion ($2.6 billion) was upheld by the European Court of Justice.

The fine in Europe was imposed pursuant to a 2017 EU Commission investigation for exploiting its dominance by favoring results from its own shopping platform in the search results for products and price comparisons.

Statista data showed the search engine’s ad revenue went up from $70 million in 2001 to $1.5 billion in only three years, reaching $29.3 billion in 2010.

Google made its largest leap in ad revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic, earning $181 billion in 2020 and $256 billion in 2021.

In the US alone, Google made $76 billion in ad revenue last year, making up 32% of its total ad revenue, while the remaining 68% was generated from other countries.

According to Statcounter, Google holds a 90.4% market share compared to other search engines worldwide, followed by Microsoft-owned Bing, whose share reaches 4%, and the Russian search engine Yandex, taking up 2% of the greater search engine pie.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim