The lobby of Google Korea headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Controversy is flaring up over Google Inc.’s alleged profit-sharing collusion with local mobile carriers and smartphone makers.
Rep. Yoon Young-chan of the ruling Democratic Party disclosed in the National Assembly’s parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Science and ICT held on Friday that Google, in collaboration with local mobile carriers and smartphone makers, hindered rival apps from being pre-installed on smartphones.
In 2016, the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the European Union (EU), raised speculation that Google had signed agreements with smartphone makers to prevent them from installing rival operating systems on smartphones.
“To monopolize the operating system (OS) market, Google formed agreements with smartphone makers, preventing them and mobile carriers from pre-installing Google’s rival apps.” said Yoon.
He also pointed out that Google has been sharing search advertising profits with smartphone makers such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, as well as mobile carriers.
In the parliamentary audit held on the previous day, Rep. Lee Young of the main opposition People Power Party insisted that when it comes to gaming apps, mobile carriers receive up to 50 percent of the commission that Google receives from in-app purchases, in return for allowing these purchases to be billed via carrier billing.
At present, gaming companies pay a 30 percent cut of revenue made within apps offered by the Google Play Store to Google. Thus far, it has been believed that the U.S. tech giant kept all of the 30 percent commission for in-app purchases on the Play Store.
In reality, however, Google shares the profits with mobile carriers, which generally receive up to 50 percent of the 30 percent commission.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
