Google to Australia: What! Us Pay You? Take a Walkabout, Mates
June 2, 2020
This will be interesting. Google has found the Australian request for money to save “real news” unacceptable. The information, if accurate, appears in “Google Rejects Call For Huge Australian Media Payout.” DarkCyber learned:
Google has rejected demands it pay hundreds of millions of dollars per year in compensation to Australian news media under a government-imposed revenue sharing deal.
What’s interesting is that Google, working overtime to control its costs of being the Google, said:
The company’s top executive in Australia said Google made barely Aus$10 million (US$6.7 million) per year from news-linked advertising, a fraction of a government watchdog’s estimates for the sector.
Will that explanation fly in Canberra (yep, DarkCyber know there was an aircraft with the moniker Canberra, but did you know that word may mean “meeting place?). Unfortunately the meeting place for Google and the government of Australia is likely to be in Oodnadatta in the summer.
The Ms. Silva, chief Googler in Australia:
also denied ACCC arguments that the tech firms gain significant “indirect benefits” from displaying news since the content draws users to their platforms. News “represents only a tiny number of queries” on Google, accounting last year for barely one percent of actions on Google Search in Australia, she said.
After 22 years of almost zero government initiative in regulating or using legislative mechanisms to deal with Google, Australia is moving forward to protect news. The effort will be interesting to watch. Unfortunately companies are likely to have more sticktoativity than some government professionals. What happens if Google hires some of the attorneys pushing the anti Google activity?
Stephen E Arnold, June 2, 2020
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