Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, will speak to the media ahead of the opening of the Berlin representation on Google Germany in Berlin on January 22, 2019.
Carsten Koall | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON – Google announced on Wednesday that it has launched its News Showcase product in the UK, meaning the tech giant will now pay for news content in the country for the first time.
The Silicon Valley company has signed a contract with 120 British publications, including The Financial Times and Reuters, which will receive a license fee for the coverage of news sections featured in the Google News Showcase. Reports suggest that publishers receive a few million dollars each year from Google.
This feature sits in the Google News and Google Discover mobile app, which is a Google-hosted feed on mobile devices that contains articles and videos.
When users click on the sections in the Google News app or on Google Discover they are taken to the full article on the publisher’s site.
“Google News Showcase, our new news production and licensing knowledge program, will launch with local, national and independent publishers in the UK,” said Ronan Harris, vice president and managing director of Google UK and Ireland , in a blog Wednesday.
“As part of our licensing agreements with publishers, we are also launching readers’ access to selected payroll content. This feature allows readers to read more publisher content than they would otherwise have access to, while giving publishers access. to encourage readers to become subscribers. “
Worldwide, Google has tested 450 news releases to bring out content for the Google News Showcase.
This feature has also been launched in Australia, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan and Argentina. Google said talks are underway in several other countries.
A long running battle
Tech giants like Facebook and Google have come under increasing pressure to pay media companies for their content.
Last October, Google said it would pay publishers $ 1 billion for news over the next three years.
However, when the Australian Government proposed a new law that would require Google and Facebook to pay news publishers for the right to link to their content in news feeds or search results, Google threatened the search engine their widespread withdrawal from the country.
The proposed law in Australia is called the news media bargaining code and is specifically targeted at Google and Facebook. It would force technical giants to negotiate payments with local publishers and broadcasters for content included in search results or news feeds. If they cannot reach a contract, a mediator nominated by the government will decide the price.
Google has been lobbying strongly against the code, saying it is “irrational” and “inoperable.”
“Coupled with the financial and operational risk of non-regulation if this version of the Code became law, it would give us no real choice but to stop Google Search being available in Australia,” said Mel. Silva, managing director for Google Australia and New Zealand, told the Australian Senate committee last month.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said at a news conference “we will not respond to threats.”