Google’s answer a ‘no show’ failure

The centrepiece of Google’s solution to paying for journalism is ‘Showcase’, a product that is not in operation in Australia and has not been shown to media companies or the regulator.

Google Australia managing director Mel Silva. Picture: Gary Ramage

The centrepiece of Google’s solution to paying for journalism is “Showcase”, a product that is not in operation in Australia and has not been shown in detail to the regulator, a senate committee heard on Friday.

Appearing before the committee probing looming mandatory media bargaining laws, Google Australia managing director Mel Silva said Google’s Showcase platform was a “good viable solution” for paying publishers for journalism, given it has a global budget of $1.3bn over three years and has nearly 450 news partners globally.

However, multiple media executives, including top-ranking officials from Nine, The Guardian, AAP and News Corp, told the committee they had not seen a live, working version of Showcase.

“Google claims to be open to paying for news by pointing to their Showcase product; a product that was recently announced but is yet to launch,” Nine chief digital and publishing officer Chris Janz said.

“Showcase is exactly what you would expect from a monopoly. It works at a price set by Google based on an opaque ­global formula.

“The take-it-or-leave-it terms are set by Google. And it doesn’t address the bargaining power imbalance of Google’s core search product identified by the ACCC.”

Google describes News Showcase as offering an “enhanced storytelling experience” in which users will be able to read entire articles, including in some cases paywalled content, in a similar platform to Apple News, and Facebook’s news tab. The product has been launched in Germany and Brazil but its launch is on pause in Australia.

Publishers argue they should be compensated for other content, including snippets in Google Search, rather than merely for articles inside a separate product like Google Showcase.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chair Rod Sims, the architect of the media bargaining code, told the hearing he hadn’t yet received sufficient answers to his questions about the Showcase product.

Mr Sims told the inquiry on Friday that Showcase “only exists for the threat of regulation”.

“We have seen this pattern in countries like France and the United Kingdom, where Google announces initiatives only after the threat of regulation becomes sufficiently serious,” he said.

“And in the end, the decision about what Showcase will look like, how it will operate and whether to offer a news business a Showcase deal is entirely up to Google. This is why this product does not address the imbalance in bargaining power that the code is designed to remedy.”

He added that commercial partnerships could be inked outside of the code, which could involve Showcase.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg described the offering as a strategy to avoid regulation.

“It is staggering that Google’s testimony to the committee didn’t include details of how Showcase would work,” he said. “If Showcase is truly Google’s alternative to our code then Google would have it in the market now. Google’s failure to get Showcase into the market shows exactly why the code is needed. The arrogance of Big Tech’s threats is truly extraordinary and it will not work.”