Google's Monopoly In Search Is Coming To An End? OpenAI's Search GPT Poses A Serious Threat To The Tech Giant

Google commands around 90 per cent of the global search market and brings in around $175 billion in annual revenue through the business.

Analysts have said that an increasing number of people are using AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, and SearchGPT which is eroding Google's dominance.

Source : Unsplash/Christian Wiediger

The days of Google having the monopoly in the market might be getting over sooner than we expected. The tech giant might be facing a huge threat from Sam Altman's OpenAI while it waits for Washington's antitrust regulators' plans to level the playing field in the business of internet search. A US ruling on Monday noted that Google has built an illegal search monopoly and regulators are apparently considering this a big win for them.

However, as per Reuters, analysts have said that an increasing number of people are using AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT, which is eroding Google's dominance.

Reuters quoted Arvind Jain, a former Google engineer who worked on products including search for a decade, as saying, "I think for Google right now, AI (is) a much bigger deal than the ruling. AI is fundamentally changing how the search product also works."

Google's Reign Coming To An End?

Google commands around 90 per cent of the global search market and brings in around $175 billion in annual revenue through the business. Even Apple which prefers building its own software and hardware, has allowed Google to be its default search engine. Apple pays a hefty fee to Google for this. It looks like this preferential treatment for an exchange of fees might come to an end. Apple has announced a partnership with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT to its upcoming devices. It is possible that Apple might also partner up with OpenAI to bring SearchGPT to its devices instead of Google.

According to Reuters report, a ruling against Google might force Apple to end its search deal with the tech giant. 

Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and principal analyst at research firm Valoir, told Reuters, "The biggest threat to Google may be Google itself - key to adoption of any AI is trust, and its original missteps with Search Overviews showed that Google's engineers were focused more on rapid releases than getting it right as it tries to keep up with the pace of OpenAI and others."

Gil Luria, an analyst at DA Davidson said that ending Google's dominance in search will be 'very hard', reported Reuters. Luria added, "No one has really made a big dent into Google search dominance yet ... we'll have to see if this will be yet another domino piece that will fall into place to actually give consumers some more choices, real choices."