Renewed calls for Google to sell Chrome have reignited demands for the company to also divest Android. An executive at Murena, a French smartphone startup, said today that breaking up the businesses is the only way to end Google’s “cycle of domination”.
The appeal follows a Friday court filing from the US Department of Justice (DOJ). The filing reaffirmed a proposal for Google to divest its Chrome browser and sell it to a competitor, in a bid to break up the tech giant’s alleged search engine monopoly.
“Through its sheer size and unrestricted power, Google has robbed consumers and businesses of a fundamental promise owed to the public — their right to choose among competing services,” the DOJ said in the filing.
The accusation echoes common complaints about Chrome’s dominance.
In February, Chrome made up two thirds of the global browser market. Next up was Safari with 17.99%, Edge (5.33%), Firefox (2.62%), and Samsung Internet (2.3%). Opera, Europe’s largest homegrown browser, made up just 2.09%.
The DOJ’s plan aims to level the playing field. But Rik Viergever, COO at Murena, a French company building privacy-first smartphones, believes the new proposals alone aren’t enough.
“As a data privacy advocate, I welcome the DOJ’s decision forcing Google to sell Chrome, however this should only be the start,” he said. “I want to see Google sell the Android operating system.”
The government has left this possibility open, but is first calling for Google to change the business practices of Android. If these measures fail to curb Google’s market dominance, the DOJ may push for divestment from the operating system.
Viergever wants the courts to do more to ease Google’s “stranglehold” on consumers and competitors.
“Google is only able to offer Android free of charge to users because it profits off them in so many other ways and markets,” he said. “This makes it almost impossible for other providers in the operating system market to compete and so the cycle of domination continues.”
Viergever’s stance aligns with Murena’s mission. The company’s main products are “deGoogled” smartphones billed as privacy-centric disruptors to the Apple-Google mobile duopoly.
The devices use /e/OS, a privacy-oriented, open-source alternative to Android. Murena built the software to escape the shackles of Google’s operating system.
Viergever argues that selling Chrome would lead to better products.
“It’s time to open the market up to innovation and competition so users can benefit from a competitive industry in which businesses compete with products that benefit consumers, rather than a big company like Google holding all the power,” he said.
