Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) is no longer considering a switch of the default search engine on its devices, and will stick with Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google, the Wall Street Journal reported early Friday.
According to the people familiar with the matter, the world’s largest smartphone maker has suspended its internal review and is no longer mulling a switch to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, citing “concerns over how the switch could be perceived by the market as well as the impact on its wide-ranging business relations with Google.”
The development, first rumored by the New York Times back in April, could’ve put at risk nearly $3B in annual revenues for Google, and had many questioning if a similar, yet much bigger, $20B deal with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) would follow suit.
It would’ve also represented a major vote of confidence for Bing, as Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been hard at work trying to grow its search engine, fueling its functionality with the incorporation of ChatGPT.
Google remains by far the dominant search engine with market shares of over 90% both in the US and in most markets globally. By comparison, Bing’s current global market share is less than 3%.
Shares of Google are trading 0.8% higher following the report; Microsoft is losing 0.4%.