Google will pay media companies $ 1 billion to use content

Over the next three years, the American company Google will pay a billion dollars (22.9 billion CZK) to media companies for being able to use their content. This was announced on Thursday by the head of the parent company Alphabet Sundar Pichai. This is the first time that the company has clearly stated when and how much it intends to pay in the first phase of the agreement with the publishers. Google outlined in June that it was preparing to take such a step.

News creators, led by European media groups, have been arguing with Google, the world's most popular search engine, over payments for content usage for many years.

Google will launch a service called Google News Showcase first in Germany and Brazil. In Germany, Alphabet has partnered with 20 publishing companies, such as Der Spiegel and Stern and Die Zeit magazines. In Brazil, for example, he collaborates with the daily Folha de S. Paulo, with Band television and with the news server Infobae.

In the Czech Republic, according to previous information, Google is not negotiating with any publisher and is probably waiting for the transposition of a European directive. The Union of Publishers did not want to officially comment on the information.

However, according to CEO Václav Mach, this is the first good signal that Google has understood that it cannot maintain indefinitely its business model based on commercial use of publishers' content, for which it does not pay them, and that it does not share its revenue in a reasonable manner. commercial activities.

For years, Google has sought to reflect the demands of news publishers around the world to pay for their content. Her biggest critics include media companies in Europe.