Samsung is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer and this also makes them the world's largest Android phone manufacturer. This important status gives them an advantage in dealing with Google. In the ongoing case of Epic Games against Google, James Kolotouros, vice president of partnerships at Google revealed that Samsung received $8 billion in payments from Google to use Google apps by default on their devices.
This $8 billion payment is received in 2020 for a four-year period that allows Google Search to be used as the default search engine, Play Store as the default app store and Assistant as the default virtual assistant. It replaces the Galaxy Store and Bixby that were used before.
While $8 billion seems like a lot, it's far less than the $18-$20 billion a year Google pays Apple to keep Search as the default search engine in Safari. Previously it was also revealed that Google is paying Samsung to speed up the Android update process on more devices released.
Tags
BUSINESS & MONEY