Google fined a minor $6.75 million for pre-installing apps on its devices, after a Russian domestic search engine rival complains.
As we all know Android is developed by Google and is the world’s most used operating system on smartphones. A condition for smartphone manufacturers to run Android on their devices is to pre-install apps such as Google Maps, Gmail, Chrome.
Russia don’t take kindly to pre-installed apps, evident after domestic search engine rival Yandex filed the complaint last year. The $6.74 million (£5.2 million) is a tiny dent on Google’s vast fortune, the American company reported $74.5 billion (£57.3 billion) in revenue for 2015.
The fine is an antitrust fine, stating the company is abusing its dominant position in the market by forcing rivalling manufactures to include its preinstalled services. This isn’t the first time Google has faced antitrust charges as the European Union also accused Google of demanding too much from rivals, making it difficult to compete.
Yandex are in a unique position compared to other search engines, the Russian search engine is a major competitor to Google, commanding 60 percent of the Russian search market. With the rise of mobile phones, Yandex fear its market share will be cut in the future, as the the majority of Russian smartphones are running Android.
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