NHN Corp.—the owner of Naver, South Korea's biggest Internet search engine by revenue—and Daum Communications Corp.wholesale electronics suppliers called for the antitrust regulator to investigate their claims that Google is restricting local mobile service providers and Android smartphone manufacturers from preloading some mobile search window applications, including their own, on smartphones.
The companies also asked the regulator whether such a restriction constituted an unfair business practice.
"Through a marketing partnership with major smartphone producers, Google has prohibited other market players from preinstalling their search window or related applications," NHN said in a statement.wholesale Android Tablets
A Google spokesman said the company hasn't yet been contacted by South Korea's Fair Trade Commission. "We...will work with them to address any questions they may have," the spokesman said. "But Android is an open platform and carrier partners are free to decide which applications and services to include on their Android phones."
Android smartphones sold in South Korea provide the Google search engine by default. Korean search portals complained that this makes it very inconvenient for phone owners to switch to a different search window.
Android phone users in South Korea can download and install rival search portal applications on their phones, but Daum and NHN say they aren't able to have these applications installed on the phones prior to purchase.
Naver has a market share of around 56% in the domestic mobile search market, while Daum has around 16% as of last month, according to Korea-based market researcher Metrix Corp.
"Google's market share in the local Internet search market only accounts for around 2% but due to such an unfair act, its share in the mobile market is fast rising in Korea, and it stands at around 15%," a NHN spokesman said.
Daum confirmed it jointly filed the complaint Friday with its South Korean rival.
U.S.-based Skyhook Wireless Inc. filed a similar complaint against Google in the Massachusetts Superior Court in September, alleging the search giant cost it tens of million of dollars by interfering with a contract to put its mapping technology on Motorola Inc. phones.
In March, Microsoft Corp. submitted an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, claiming Google restricts the ability of Microsoft's Bing search engine and its Windows Mobile phone apps to find and return links to YouTube videos. Google owns YouTube.
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