Australia once again threatens Google: Microsoft will replace Google

Author | Liu Haitao

According to foreign media reports, on February 1, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "If Google continues to threaten Australia to withdraw from key services such as search engines, another giant Microsoft will completely replace it in the future and swallow up the market vacuum left by Google's withdrawal."

This speech means that the legislative conflict between Google and Australia has further intensified.

Leifeng.com learned that the conflict between the two is mainly due to the digital media law that Australia took the lead in promoting to the Internet industry. The bill was proposed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the summer of 2020.

The bill allows publishers to negotiate collectively or individually with tech giants to reach payment agreements for media content, and sets a three-month deadline for reaching a payment agreement.

Google and Facebook have both expressed dissatisfaction with the bill. Google believes that the clauses in the bill infringe its own interests and demands amendments to clauses such as "paying more than $1 billion in content royalties to media publishers within three years."

On January 12, the day the bill was submitted to Parliament, Google adjusted its search and news algorithms in Australia, blocking some users' links to some Australian commercial media, including The Guardian Australia, The Australian Financial Review and other media.

A Google spokesperson said: "Google is running experiments covering 1% of Google users in Australia to measure the impact of Google News versus Google Search."

At a hearing in the Australian Senate on January 19, Google Australia executives once again stated: "The Australian Digital Media Bill will not work. If the bill is passed into law, Google will have no choice but to shut down its search service in Australia."

Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, also said: "We will stop Australian users from sharing news on Facebook and its Instagram app," to obstruct the implementation of the bill.

But Australia responded quickly.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said: "The laws are made by the Australian government and parliament. If you are willing to accept them, we welcome it, but we will never accept threats."

In recent years, the advertising revenue of local media companies in Australia has been monopolized by the Internet. Readers browse the news released by the media on the Internet, causing media companies to lose traffic and reduce paid subscriptions.

According to statistics from local Australian research institutions, more than 200 news organizations across Australia have cut their operations, temporarily closed or permanently closed since January 2019. Of every A$100 spent on digital advertising, A$81 goes to Google and Facebook.

It should be noted that Australia is not the only rebel in this traffic conflict between traditional media and Internet companies.

In April 2020, French regulators ruled that Google had abused its market dominance and ordered it to negotiate with the country's news organizations to pay for news content.

On January 21, Google officially compromised with the French Press Association (APIG). The two jointly announced that they had reached a framework agreement on copyright fee payment, and news organizations can collect display authorization fees from online platforms. This is the first and only time in Google's history.