Asia-Pacific

ROK firms accuse Google of antitrust violations

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-15 16:45

SEOUL - South Korea's two largest Internet firms said Friday they filed complaints against Google with the country's antitrust watchdog.

NHN Corp. and Daum Communications Corp., operators of the nation's two biggest Internet search engines, separately filed complaints against Google with the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for preventing competitors from embedding their search programs in smartphones using the Android operating system.

The South Korean companies claimed that Google has forced local mobile phone carriers and manufacturers to preload its own mobile search programs on smartphones sold in the country.

Google has blocked local phone makers from including rivals' Internet search applications by exploiting its position as the Android operating system developer, according to the local Internet firms.

Google, meanwhile, refuted the accusations, saying that which applications and services to include depends on device manufactures and carriers because the Android platform is completely free and open.

The Android system, used in such devices as Samsung Electronics ' Galaxy S, has recently posted the fastest growth in the mobile search engine market.

The country's top three players, including NHN and Daum, dominate about 90 percent of the local Web search business on personal computers in South Korea, but Google has never taken a more than five percent share.