This decision ends a two-long long investigation by the South Korean FTC, which was initiated after NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp, two of the top Korean internet portal providers and search engine owners filed a complaint against Google in 2011.
In their complaints, the two portal providers accused Google of hurting fair market competition by making smartphone owners pre-loaded Google Search app on Android phones. FTC reviewed the case and found against the accusations of Korean Internet portal providers.
“Before and after Google’s push to force the preload of the Android operating system, its domestic market share remains almost unchanged at around 10 percent, while Naver (the portal of NHN) still maintains more than 70 percent,” an FTC official told Yonhap news.
Kwon Chul-hyun, a director at the commission told AP that consumers can easily download other search applications.
