Facebook and Google app logos are displayed on a tablet.
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LONDON – Facebook announced on Tuesday that it will start rolling out its Facebook News product in the UK and will pay publishers for its content.
Facebook News is a section dedicated to the Facebook app that includes selected and personalized news from hundreds of national, local, and lifestyle posts.
The product, which competes with Apple News, was launched in the United States last June and the United Kingdom is the second country to access it.
Facebook claims that the product provides “informative, reliable and relevant news” to users, “while highlighting original and authoritative reports on urgent issues.”
Jesper Doub, European director of Facebook news associations, said in a blog post on Tuesday: “This is the beginning of a series of international investments in news.”
He added: “The product is a multi-year investment that puts original journalism in front of new audiences, as well as providing publishers with more advertising and subscription opportunities to build sustainable businesses for the future.”
Facebook announced the UK launch of Facebook News in November, saying it would include content from media partners such as Conde Nast, Hearst, The Economist and Guardian Media Group.
On Tuesday, Facebook said it has now subscribed to Channel 4 News, Daily Mail Group, DC Thomson, Financial Times, Sky News and Telegraph Media Group.
Some content that is normally behind a pay wall can be viewed for free on Facebook News, which is expected to launch in more countries this year.
“We will continue to learn, listen to and improve Facebook News as it spreads to the UK and other markets, including France and Germany, where we are in active negotiations with partners,” Doub said.
Technical giants like Facebook and Google are pushing more and more to pay media companies for their content.
A Facebook spokesman told CNBC that the company will pay for certain British posts to include its content on Facebook News, but could not reveal how much.
“We will pay some editors to participate in Facebook News,” he said. “We are paying for content that is not yet on the platform to achieve a diverse set of coverage in a wide range of thematic areas.”
He added: “Earning revenue for most publishers listed on Facebook News will be similar to earning revenue through other Facebook tabs, from referral traffic to your sites or ads to instant articles. which pushes people to get a pay wall. “
The battle of Google
Last week, Google signed an agreement to pay French publishers and news agencies for their content.
The agreement comes after several months of talks between Google France and media groups, represented by the French lobby of the General Information Press Alliance.
Google said it would negotiate individual licenses with alliance members that cover related rights and open up access to a new company mobile service called News Showcase.
The search giant said last year that it would pay news publishers for the first time, a change of stain from the Internet giant that for years had refused to do so. The company agreed to a number of initial businesses in Germany, Australia and Brazil, and now appears to be expanding in France.
But when the Australian government proposed a new law that would force Google and Facebook to pay news publishers the right to link to their content, Google threatened to remove it from its widely used search engine.
“Along with the unmanageable financial and operational risk if this version of the code became law, it would give us no choice but to stop making Google Search available in Australia,” said Mel Silva, CEO of Google Australia and New Zealand , he told the Senate committee last week.
Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister, said at a news conference that “we are not responding to threats”.
– Additional reports from CNBC’s Ryan Browne.