Eddy Cue explains why Apple won't build a search engine

Eddy Cue explains why Apple won't build a search engine

Apple Senior Vice President (Services) Eddy Cue says Apple will not build a search engine to compete with Google because it would "cost billions of dollars and take many years," according to a motion to intervene filed with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday. The motion is aimed at entering the penalty phase of the DOJ's antitrust case against Google, where its ongoing default search engine deal with Google could put up to $20 billion at risk for Apple.

The DOJ and Google disagree on how to address Google's monopoly on general purpose search engines, but the two sides have tentatively agreed to end or renegotiate the Apple partnership. Last week Google proposed a three-year ban on strict long-term exclusive deals involving any "proprietary Apple feature or functionality."

Cue warned that removing the search deal would ultimately harm Apple and benefit Google:

If this court prevents Google from sharing revenue for search distribution, Apple would have two unacceptable options. It could still allow users in the United States to choose Google as a search engine for Safari, but Apple could get no share of the resulting revenue, so Google would gain valuable access to Apple's users at no cost. Or Apple could remove Google Search as an option on Safari. But because customers prefer Google, removing it as an option would harm both Apple and its customers.

As reported by MacRumors, Cue said that Apple creating its own general search engine would be "financially risky" and suggests that AI chatbots are the next big evolution for search. Apple also mentioned in the filing that it would have to adopt targeted advertising as a core service to make search viable, which would not fit at all with its privacy-focused business model.

Cue also said that "only Apple can determine what kind of cooperation will best serve its users in the future" and warned that the DOJ's proposed measures would "impede" Apple from meeting its customers' needs.