Microsoft executive says Google deals kept Bing small

Photo courtesy of Mike Segar, Reuters

Article courtesy of Diane Bartz, Reuters

WASHINGTON. – A Microsoft (MSFT.O) executive testified on Thursday that Apple (AAPL.O) and other smartphone makers turned down revenue sharing agreements that would have helped his company's Bing search engine - keeping Google in its dominant position on those devices as the default search engine.

Jonathan Tinter, a Microsoft vice president whose job has been to help Bing grow, testified at the trial of the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust case against Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google.

The department accuses Google of paying $10 billion annually to wireless carriers and smartphone makers to ensure that Google search is the default on their devices. The government argues that Google has abused its monopoly in search and some aspects of search advertising.

Tinter said that Bing has struggled to win default status on smartphones sold in the United States, and that this smaller scale translated into poorer quality search.

Under questioning from the Justice Department, Tinter testified that Bing was not the default installed in any Android or Apple smartphone sold in the U.S. in the past decade, even though Microsoft would at times offer to give more than 100% of revenue -- or more -- to its partner.

"We were just big enough to play but not big enough to win," Tinter said.