350 trillion advertising revenue...Google is on the verge of 'sell Chromium'

The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly seeking to sell web browser Chrome as a way to eliminate Google's illegal monopoly in the online search market, putting Google on fire.

The Justice Department, which won a search market antitrust lawsuit with Google in August, will ask the court to order the sale of Google Chrome, according to Bloomberg.

Since winning the anti-trust lawsuit, the Justice Department has been considering selling parts of Google's business to mitigate the harm caused by the company's monopoly on the online search market, with the sale of Chrome at its core.

Along with the iPhone's iOS, the Justice Department also considered selling Google's Android, the world's two largest operating systems (OS) for smartphones, but took a step back.

However, if the sale of Chrome becomes a reality, it will be a significant blow to Google.

According to web traffic analysis site StatCounter, Chrome has a 66.7% share of the global browser market.

In other words, two out of three people are using chrome.

This is significantly better than the Safari on the iPhone (18%) or the Edge (5%) browser on Microsoft (MS).

Chrome is closely related to Google search services.

Google's global search market share reached 90.9% as of April, with most internet searches coming via Chrome.

In other words, Chrome is the main channel for connecting Google search to use.

Google currently maintains market dominance in Google search through Chrome.

Selling Chrome would effectively break the link leading to search, which would likely lead to Google weakening its market dominance.

The recent search market could accelerate Google's weakening of its market dominance amid fierce competition as OpenAI recently launched a "chatGPT search" and Microsoft's Bing gradually increased its market share.

In particular, Google is generating huge profits from advertising through search services, which is expected to hurt its business as a whole.

Of Google's $88.27 billion total revenue in the third quarter, advertising revenue was $65.85 billion.

Seventy percent of all sales are advertising sales.


1 and Q2 also posted $64.6 billion and $61.6 billion in advertising sales, and including Q4 estimates, advertising sales reached at least $250 billion (about 348 trillion won) over the year.

However, it is unclear whether this plan will be confirmed.

Justice Amit Mehta, a federal court judge in Washington, D.C., who ruled in favor of the Justice Department in the antitrust lawsuit, must accept the Justice Department's proposal.

Google is also seeking an appeal, so it is expected to take years before the legal battle ends.

Google also criticized the plan to sell Chrome, saying, "The Justice Department continues to pursue a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues of the case."

In particular, former President Donald Trump's election is expected to be the biggest variable.

The anti-trust lawsuit against Google was filed by the current Joe Biden administration, but it may change its stance in a relatively business-friendly Trump administration.

Two months before the presidential election, former President Trump said he would prosecute Google for being biased, but a month later questioned whether Google's breakup was a good idea, Reuters reported.

In the 1990s, the Justice Department's then century anti-trust lawsuit against MS lost the first trial and was ordered to split into two companies.

But the lawsuit ended when the Justice Department abandoned plans to split the company and reached an agreement with Microsoft as it moved from the Bill Clinton administration to the George Bush administration.