Google Will Launch Its Own News Website In Australia To Fight Off The Government’s Content Payment Law
With Australia’s recent announcement of law on content payment, Google decided to withdraw its search engine service in the country. And within weeks, the internet giant is thinking about bringing back its plan to launch its own news website in the country. The local media outlets report that they plan to do its soon fighting back the world’s first-ever laws on content payment.
As per the experts, the launch of the new website is part of strategic planning that Google has devised to fight back the Australian government’s proposal of paying the local news outlets for their content that appear in Google’s search results.
The editor of the academic-penned news site The Conversation, Misha Ketchell stated on Wednesday that Google reached him about the launch of the News Showcase product as soon as possible, most preferably in February. He said they are working on the matter with Google.
Google first made an announcement about launching News Showcase in Australia in June last year. They planned to sign deals with six small local news houses including The Conversation for that matter. But due to regulatory problems in Australia, the launching was delayed. The competition regulator in Australia released a draft of the proposed media bargaining code back then.
With the plan to launch its own news website, Google made it clear that it is willing to destroy its own content deals. The move is their protest against the new government-mandated legislation.
The spokesperson of Google in Australia has refused to make any comment on the matter on Wednesday. But two local news outlets have confirmed that they have received content details for the new news website.
In a parliamentary hearing last week, the Chief Executive of Google Australia, Mel Silva said that they would remove the flagship search tool from the country if the government decides to go along with the law that orders the search engine to pay all the news outlets whose content appear in its search results.
In this first-ever law, not just Google, but social media giant Facebook as well has to make payment to the Australian media outlets whose content appear on their platforms. If both the parties fail to negotiate a deal, the government will interfere and appoint an arbitrator to do it.
According to Google, the law is unworkable due to its unfair terms and conditions. The law is currently going under a parliamentary inquiry and is going to be passed very soon.
A professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Centre for Media Transition, Derek Wilding said that ‘If Google can demonstrate that it can reach an agreement with some publishers then its aim is to show that that commercial arrangements can be made in the absence of some kind of legislative intervention.’
He also said that the type of deals that Google will come up with may not suit all the publishers in the country.
I am Darryl Broadhurst and i give investors an insight into the most recent news hitting the “Technology” sector in Wall Street. I have been an independent financial adviser for over 11 years in the city and in recent years turned my experience in finance and passion for journalism into a full time role. I perform analysis of Companies and publicizes valuable information for shareholder community.
