By Vlad Schepkov
Samsung-built smartphones may soon have a new default search engine - the company is considering replacing Alphabet's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google with Microsoft's (NASDAQ:MSFT) Bing, according to a Sunday report by the NYT.
The South Korean conglomerate (KS:005930), one of the world's leading smartphone makers, is said to be mulling the switch as Microsoft intensifies its search war on Google, having recently incorporated the ChatGPT technology into its search engine.
The NYT report says the move would put at risk nearly $3 billion in annual revenues for Google, leaving to question if a similar, yet much bigger deal with Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), worth $20B in annual revenues per the report, can hold.
Google is still by far the dominant search engine with market shares of over 90% both in the US, and in most markets globally. By comparison, Bing's current global market share is less than 3%.
Nonetheless, the rise of AI and ChatGPT has prompted analytics to question if Google can maintain its grip - the company's own management reportedly issued an internal 'code red' back in December, as ChatGPT's popularity soared.
Shares of Alphabet, Google parent are losing over 3.2% in premarket on Monday. Microsoft is gaining nearly 1.4%.