In the third quarter of 2023, Google's digital advertising business saw a 9% growth compared to the same period the previous year. This increase occurred in a situation where several countries have raised concerns about Google's potential monopoly.

The growth in Google's digital advertising business also had a positive impact on its parent company, Alphabet. Alphabet recorded a total profit of approximately 11%, reaching $76.69 billion last year. This achievement even outperformed the 7% annual revenue growth between April and June.

Efforts to increase Alphabet's revenue were combined with cost reductions, leading to the removal of over 7,800 employees from Alphabet's payroll throughout the year. This allowed Alphabet to report a profit of $19.7 billion, equivalent to $1.55 per share, representing an increase of about 42% compared to the previous year. By the end of September, Alphabet had nearly 182,400 employees.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet, noted that some customers were optimizing their spending on cloud services in response to budget tightening amid economic uncertainty. This was influenced by factors such as conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, as well as the potential closure of the US government next month.

On the contrary, the US Department of Justice has accused Google of abusing its power to increase profits while stifling competition and innovation. These allegations have now spread to Asia, where Japanese competition regulators are investigating Google for potential violations of antitrust laws in web search services, aligning with the allegations raised by Europe and the United States.

The Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) has revealed that they are currently investigating Google for suspected violations of Japanese antitrust laws. This includes practices involving the division of ad revenue with Android smartphone manufacturers as a condition for not installing rival search engines. Japanese competition regulators are also examining Google's practices that force Android smartphone manufacturers to install the Google Search and Google Chrome applications alongside Google Play.

A JFTC official emphasized that the issue is not just about the popularity of Google's services but rather about maintaining healthy competition. Therefore, the JFTC initiated this investigation with the question of whether other search engine providers face difficulties in becoming a user's choice, regardless of how many improvements they have made.

The JFTC's decision follows similar investigations carried out by antitrust regulators in the European Union, the United States, and other countries.