Microsoft ready to step up on its search engine Bing

Microsoft has committed to step up investment in Australia to transform its search engine, Bing, into a fit-for-purpose service for small businesses across Australia.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella. Picture: AFP

Tech giant Microsoft has committed to step up investment in Australia to transform its search engine, Bing, into a fit-for-purpose service for small businesses across Australia if Google shuts down its dominant search service.

“We are prepared to invest more, not less,” Microsoft president Brad Smith told The Australian from Seattle.

Microsoft supports the federal government’s proposed news media bargaining code — which has led Google to threaten to quit Australia — and has agreed that it would live by that code if it gained enough market share for the code to apply.

“It is important for us to be clear,” said Mr Smith, who is also Microsoft’s chief legal officer. “We’re not just advocating rules for others, we’re supporting rules that we’re prepared to live by ourselves if we are fortunate to be in a similar position.”

At present Bing is too small to be named in the code. If it grew, Bing would agree to pay media ­organisations for content.

Mr Smith said the time was right to back the code as a fully fledged legislative proposal in front of the Australian people.

“Since I was in Australia two years ago, we see the impact of technology on the world’s democracies is a two-sided problem: we are seeing technology used to spread this information that is a threat to democracy; and we are seeing technology to some degree sap the traditional economic base of news media that provides the quality journalistic support on which it a democracy depends.

“This proposal is coming at the right time and it addresses the right problem in the right way.”

Microsoft’s announcement backing the code and offering to step into the breach if needed with Bing was made after direct talks between Mr Smith, his chief executive Satya Nadella, Scott Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher.

“Well, it got our attention,” said Mr Smith, speaking of his ­reaction when news broke of the Google threat. “We saw the news reports, and Satya and I talked. We said to each other, it’s not the way we believe in doing business.”

Mr Smith described how events unfolded. “It moved ­quickly. Satya and I talked with each other last Monday and we said, well, let’s see if the Prime Minister would be willing to have a conversation with us.”

While Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg chose Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to lobby, Mr Nadella and Mr Smith asked their Australian team to reach out higher up. “Last Friday afternoon Australian time, Satya and I had the chance to be with the Prime Minister and (Communications) Minister Fletcher. We were very, I’ll say direct with our words. We said it didn’t matter what Google wanted to do, we were committed to the country. We wanted to stay. We were prepared to invest.”

Mr Smith said Microsoft had not sought or received any commitment from the federal government, including on any government contracts, in return for helping out Australia.

“No. No. We did not ask for anything like that. The Prime Minister did not make any promises. It would not have been in my view appropriate for us to seek such a thing.”

He said that “Google will decide what Google wants to do. We saw that as time for us to step forward. This is not the way we do business. It’s not the way we ever will do business. That’s why I wanted to convey in the statement that this is just not something you’re ever going to read about Microsoft doing, namely threatening to leave Australia.”

Bing is widely acknowledged to be an inferior service to Google Search in Australia, but Mr Smith said the company had the know-how to invest in Bing to make it the successful platform that small business needed.

The Australian approached Google but the company declined to comment.