The EU's fight with Google is a fruitless search

The EU's fight with Google is a fruitless search

As most of you will have read, the European Union is picking a huge anti-trust fight with Google around Google's dominant position in search and mobile, and how Google leverages that dominance. There are two aspects to the EU's argument:

1. Google delivers over 90% of search results in Europe and the EU says Google is manipulating and placing its own preferred search results (e.g. for online shopping) ahead of promoting other companies
2. The EU wants to investigate how Google forces Android device manufacturers to bundle its Google services and how those services have to be given pride of place on the home screen of those devices

It's time somebody jumped to the defence of Google, and that someone is me. Here are 5 reasons why the EU should leave Google alone:

1. European consumers aren't complaining and that's really important. In general consumers love Google because they get a raft of great services for free including email, maps, storage and more and they also find Google's search to be the best. So this is a typical example of the EU interfering for the sake of it when consumers don't seem to share their politicians' view of the world
2. I would argue that Google has actually created competition. Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Android, and thank goodness they did ... Android came at a time when the mobile industry was scared about Apple's rising dominance and Apple's walled garden approach, so Google invested in Android to give the industry an open source free alternative with no walls around it. I would argue that Android saved several mobile OEMs including Samsung from oblivion. The fact that Android is now the dominant OS is actually a tribute to Google, not something to be slammed by EU commissioners. My sources in Google tell me that Google has never made a direct profit from Android, and while everyone accepts that Google has made a lot of money from Google Play apps, in-app billing, and mobile advertising served up by Android, Google's support for the underlying Android OS has been unwavering. 
3. My company AppCarousel provides app stores across many sectors and devices, and Android is a big part of our business. Manufacturers of devices based on Android can freely choose between the Google-bundled version (i.e. with Google Mobile Services including YouTube, Gmail, Maps and more) and the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) version which has no Google services. The AOSP manufacturers often turn to us to add the layers of value that Google isn't providing including an alternative app store to Google Play and other app management capabilities. So we as a solutions vendor, and our OEM customers, thank Google for creating new markets for us. In our view Google is anything but restrictive, in fact Google has done what it does best ... it has created a thriving ecosystem of which Google plays a big part but where others can also develop businesses. Contrast that to Apple's closed app ecosystem.
4. Following on from (3), I want to make it clear how important the AOSP vs. GMS thing is for the industry. A device manufacturer wanting to make a new mass market device will often choose Android as the operating system because a) it's free! thanks to Google's investment in Android and b) consumers of mass market devices demand branded email, YouTube, mapping and cloud storage and the OEM can offer them Google's GMS package for free. However Google doesn't insist that OEMs take all those GMS services ... if they did the industry would feel very different about Google leveraging its dominance and the EU would have a case. OK, granted, Google makes it attractive to manufacturers to load up those GMS items and Google then insists on certifying the device (and forces the Google icons to be prominent on the device) but who can blame them, I personally think it's a fair compromise and it isn't a case of Google abusing its power.
5. My friends in Europe feel that this fight is just as much geopolitical as it is technological and market driven. It's no secret that the EU thinks Google isn't paying its fair share of taxes on profits generated in the EU, and for this anti-trust the EU can fine Google 10% of its annual revenues which would amount to a $6 Billion windfall at a time when the EU needs to bolster its coffers.

In summary, what is the likely outcome of this anti-trust procedure? If the EU wins,Google will be forced to change its search engine and open up its search world to further scrutiny and change, and Google Mobile Services will have to be completely unbundled from Android enabling OEMs to suppress Google services and replace them with their own, more easily than today. Those changes will disappoint and frustrate consumers who, today, enjoy a seamless Google experience and I am not sure fragmentation and confusion will - in the end - be in the best interests of the app economy.