According to the Zhitong Finance APP, senior officials from the antitrust division of the usa Department of Justice have decided to request a judge to force the american "tech giant" google (GOOGL.US) to sell its Chrome browser business, which is crucial for its profits. This would be a historic blow against one of the largest technology companies globally and indicates that google is deeply mired in antitrust issues, with the "breakup moment" seemingly getting closer.

Regarding the upcoming "Trump 2.0 era", analysts generally believe that google may be the only giant targeted by the Trump administration among the "seven major tech giants" in the usa, with Trump supporters including vice president-elect JD Vance repeatedly emphasizing the company's bias against conservatives. Trump himself also supported breaking up the giant during his first term.

Media reports citing insiders reveal that the usa Department of Justice will ask a judge to push google to take measures related to ai and its android smart phone operating system. This judge ruled in August that google illegally monopolized the search engine market. According to insiders, antitrust officials and states involved in the case also plan to suggest on Wednesday that federal judge Amit Mehta enforce data licensing requirements.

If Mehta accepts these proposals, they could reshape the online search market and the thriving ai industry. The lawsuit was filed during the Trump administration and continues under President Biden's term. This marks the most severe antitrust action taken by the usa government against another tech giant since Washington's unsuccessful attempt to break up microsoft 20 years ago.

Having the world's most popular web browsing platform Chrome is crucial for google's core business — advertising. The company can view the activities of logged-in users and utilize this data to more effectively target promotional campaigns, which generate most of its revenue. Google has also been using Chrome to direct users to its flagship generative ai product, Gemini, which has the potential to evolve from a question-answering ai chat robot to a personal ai assistant that follows users online.

Google's vice president for regulatory affairs, Lee-Anne Muhlhan, stated that the usa Department of Justice "continues to push a radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues of this case." She added, "The government of the usa intervening in this way will harm consumers, developers, and the technology leadership of the usa, especially when it is needed the most."

The usa Department of Justice declined to comment.

Under the influence of this negative news, during post-market trading, Google's stock price temporarily fell by 1.8% to $172.16. As of Monday's close this year, Google's stock price has risen by 25%.

Chrome access

According to informed sources, the usa antitrust enforcement agency hopes the judge will order Google to sell the Chrome browser, which is also the most widely used browser globally, as it represents the most critical access point for many users using its exclusive search engine.

Informed sources said that if other aspects of the antitrust remedies against Google create a more competitive market, the usa government could choose to later decide whether the Chrome business needs to be sold. According to statistics from the web traffic analysis service company StatCounter, the Chrome browser has a market share of up to 61% in the usa.

In the past three months, government lawyers have met with dozens of companies to prepare relevant proposals. Informed sources revealed that the states involved in the antitrust case against Google are still considering adding some proposals, and some details may change.

Informed sources indicated that antitrust officials had recently abandoned the more severe option of forcing Google to sell the Android smart phone system.

Google plans to appeal.

In August, Judge Meta ruled that Google violated usa antitrust laws in the online search and "search text advertising" markets. Previously, Google underwent a 10-week trial. Google has repeatedly stated plans to appeal.

Judge Meta has scheduled a two-week hearing around April to determine what changes Google must make to correct or remedy its illegal antitrust behavior, and plans to issue a final ruling by August 2025, which means Google has sufficient time to coordinate remedial actions.

Insiders indicate that the agency and state governments have decided to recommend requiring Google to license the results and data of its globally popular search engine and to provide more freedom of choice for websites to prevent their content from being exclusively used by Google's ai products.

Insiders also report that antitrust enforcement agencies are ready to propose that Google separate its Android smart phone operating system from other products under Google's umbrella (including the search engine and Google Play mobile app store), which are currently presented in a bundled sales model. They are also prepared to require Google to share more information with advertisers and give them greater control over the placement of ads.

A preliminary document submitted by the usa Department of Justice and state attorneys general in October outlined all these options as well as prohibitions on signing exclusive contracts, which is central to the Google case.

Whether Google would actually be forced to break up due to the antitrust case will also depend on finding large buyers that are interested. Companies capable of and potentially wanting this search wealth, such as amazon and microsoft, are also facing some antitrust scrutiny cases that could hinder similar massive acquisition deals.

Bloomberg Intelligence's well-known analyst Mandip Singh stated in an email: "I believe the likelihood of giants initiating acquisitions is extremely low." However, he added that he could see relatively small buyers like OpenAI, the developer of the ai chat robot ChatGPT. "This would allow them to obtain larger distribution channels and also engage in advertising business to fully complement their consumer-facing ai chat robot subscription service."

AI Overviews

Google now displays the most suitable search answers based on ai large models quickly derived at the top of the search page, labeled as "AI Overviews". Although major websites can choose not to allow Google to use their information to create ai large models, they cannot bear the cost of not providing overview information, as this could lower their ranking and coverage in search results, making it harder to attract commercial clients.

Many website publishers have complained that this feature significantly reduces traffic and advertising revenue, as AI Overviews allow search engine users to get answers directly, leading them to refuse to click to view the data supporting these results.

According to informed sources, in terms of data licensing, antitrust enforcers plan to present two most likely options: Google sells its underlying "click and query" exclusive data and separately sells its compiled annotated lists of integrated search results.

The company currently sells integrated search results, but there are some restrictions, such as prohibiting use on mobile devices like smart phones. If Google is forced to integrate its search results, then competing search engines and ai startup companies can quickly improve the quality of their searches or the content generation quality of ai chatbots, while the data source will enable other companies to build their own customized search engines.