Following news that Samsung Electronics of South Korea was contemplating switching from Google to Microsoft’s Bing as the default search engine on its smartphones, shares of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, dropped more than 4% in premarket trade on Monday, April 17.
The report, published over the weekend by the New York Times, highlights the growing challenges Google’s US$162-billion-a-year search engine business faces from Bing — a minor player that has recently risen in prominence following the integration of the artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT.
With OpenAI’s technology to give ChatGPT-like replies to user questions, Bing has become a more formidable challenger to Google in recent months.
According to the report, Google’s response to the threat was “panic,” since the corporation generated an estimated US$3 billion in yearly income from the Samsung deal. A comparable Apple deal that is due for renewal this year is linked to an additional US$20 billion, the article said.
However, representatives from Alphabet and Samsung have refused to comment on the current situation.
Read also: OpenAI, Microsoft to challenge Google with ChatGPT-powered Bing
Google could be falling behind Microsoft in a fast-moving AI race
Both Microsoft and Google have long-standing ties with Samsung, and as a result, both companies’ applications and services, such OneDrive and Google Maps, are preinstalled on all of Samsung’s smartphones. According to IDC research, Samsung will sell 261 million smartphones in 2022, all of which will run Google’s Android software.
Despite having an 80% search market dominance for many years, Wall Street is worried that Google may be lagging behind Microsoft in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence race. Google’s parent company lost $100 billion in value on February 8 when its new chatbot, Bard, presented incorrect information in a promotional video and a corporate event fell flat.
“Investors are concerned that Google has become a lax monopolist in search, and recent developments have served as a wake-up call,” Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell said.
Google is working to include AI features in it existing services
To prevent losing momentum, Google is also working on numerous projects to refresh and revitalise its search services. These include integrating artificial intelligence components into its current services via a project called Magi, which has more than 160 employees working on it, according to the Times.
Google is “excited about bringing new AI-powered features to search and will share more details soon,” according to Lara Levin, a Google spokesperson.
Large language models, such as the one underlying ChatGPT and the chatbot capability in Microsoft’s Bing, are not new to Google. Google’s chief business officer said on the firm’s fourth-quarter results call in February that the company has been employing LLMs to predict the intent of users’ inquiries. Google is also rolling out Bard, its own chatbot search assistant, though doing so at a very cautious pace.