‘Huawei wanted a different search engine than Google on smartphones in Europe’

Huawei is said to have agreed with the French Qwant that it would make that company’s search engine the standard search engine of Huawei smartphones in various European countries. The deal ultimately fell through, according to Qwant due to new licensing terms from Google.

According to Techcrunch, Qwant claims that Huawei would have to pay forty dollars per device to Google to only provide services such as the Play Store without setting the Search app as default. According to Qwant, the Chinese manufacturer found the deal too expensive and it did not go through. Huawei has not confirmed the information.

The information is in line with the rates that The Verge mentioned earlier. According to that information, providing Google Mobile Services, including the Play Store, costs forty dollars per device in various countries when it comes to a screen with a high pixel density. Manufacturers do not have to pay that amount if they also include Chrome and Google Search.

Qwant says that Google is still blocking competition in the European Union, something for which it was fined this summer. Google probably uses this construction because it monetizes ads on websites in Chrome and in the search results of the Search app.

The French search company, which focuses on privacy and says it does not track users, wants the European Commission to take action against these licensing costs from Google. It is unknown whether the Commission will do so.

Mock-up: Huawei Mate 20 Pro with Qwant widget