<story><title>Google paid $8B to make its apps default on Samsung phones</title><url>https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4309219-google-paid-8-billion-to-make-its-apps-default-on-samsung-phones/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fasthands9</author><text>I still am confused as to whether or not Google would be happier if these types of payments were banned for everyone.&lt;p&gt;It seems like the only reason Google paid 8B, is because another company would have paid 7B otherwise. If Samsung was told &amp;quot;You can&amp;#x27;t let anyone pay you - have to show a screen with four competitors and let the user pick which one they want as default&amp;quot; I assume the vast majority of people would just pick Google?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>httpz</author><text>There are far too many people who doesn&amp;#x27;t even think about the concept of a default app, let alone know how to change the default app. If you showed 4 apps all named &amp;quot;Calendar&amp;quot; with slightly different icons to someone like my dad, he wouldn&amp;#x27;t know what to pick or the fact that Google made one of it and Samsung made the other one. Google probably has data on what percentage of smartphone users are like this and determined that $8B is worth it.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google paid $8B to make its apps default on Samsung phones</title><url>https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4309219-google-paid-8-billion-to-make-its-apps-default-on-samsung-phones/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fasthands9</author><text>I still am confused as to whether or not Google would be happier if these types of payments were banned for everyone.&lt;p&gt;It seems like the only reason Google paid 8B, is because another company would have paid 7B otherwise. If Samsung was told &amp;quot;You can&amp;#x27;t let anyone pay you - have to show a screen with four competitors and let the user pick which one they want as default&amp;quot; I assume the vast majority of people would just pick Google?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>cgb223</author><text>&amp;gt; If Samsung was told &amp;quot;You can&amp;#x27;t let anyone pay you - have to show a screen with four competitors and let the user pick which one they want as default&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;What if I’m the 5th messaging app? How do I get a place over the first 4? How does Samsung decide?&lt;p&gt;What if I’m the 20th or 50th? Do I deserve a shot? If not where is the cut off? How do I become a winner and not a loser in this situation as the first N shown will have a huge growth advantage</text></comment>