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Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it is “inevitable” that Google and other big technicians will eventually have to pay for the use of multimedia content, in response to the internet giant’s threat to shut down its search engine. search the country if you are forced to pay local publishers for the news.
Google said Friday that a bill, intended to compensate publishers for the value their stories generate for the company, is “unfeasible,” opposing the requirement paid by media companies to display snippets of articles in search results.
As Google intensifies a months-long confrontation with the government, Frydenberg said Australia could be a “world leader” in pushing the code or waiting for others to pass similar legislation.
“It appears that the digital giants did themselves a great disservice last week when they openly and publicly threatened the Australian public with effectively withdrawing from Australia with the search for whether the legislation continues as it currently stands,” Frydenberg said.
The threat is Google’s most powerful, as the digital giant tries to curb a flow of regulatory action around the world, but such a radical step would give rivals a whole developed market. At least 94% of online searches in Australia go through Alphabet Unit Inc., according to the local competition regulator.
Google sees an agreement within the reach of the world’s first law to pay for news
However, Google’s market share puts the company in a position to increase the revenue of other companies to offset higher costs.
“The company’s product leadership in search of rivals such as Yahoo, Microsoft’s Bing and DuckDuckGo makes it unlikely that advertisers and publishers will be able to switch to competing platforms to drive short- or medium-term referral traffic,” he said. Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh. and Matthew Martino. “The company could offset this by raising ad prices and reducing the costs of acquiring paid traffic to mobile network operators.”
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Facebook Inc., the only other target company in the legislation, is also opposed to the law in Australia. The social media platform reiterated at Friday’s hearing that it is considering blocking Australians from sharing news on Facebook if the law is promoted.
Frydenberg also accused the tech giants of having changed their sticks in expressing their resistance to the code, after rejecting a final arbitration model for the first time, to now oppose the idea of paying for clicks shown in search results.
“If clicks for multimedia content are such a small proportion of the overall clicks on the search, ultimately, independent arbitrators will find that it should reflect that payment for the content, which reflects the benefit to Google and Facebook of having this medium. content in their places, “he said.
The legislation is designed to support a local media industry, including that of Rupert Murdoch News Corp., which has struggled to adapt to the digital economy. Google’s tougher stance sparked backlash from lawmakers at the hearing, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that “we are not responding to threats.”
“It’s about control and power,” said Johan Lidberg, an associate professor at Monash University in Melbourne who specializes in media and journalism. “They’re telling other regulators they’ll have a fight on their hands if they do.”
The threat of Google’s Australian search will give bad results: Alex Webb
– With the assistance of Angus Whitley
(Add the analyst’s comment to the seventh paragraph.)