Google in talks with publishers to launch Google News Showcase in India
- The company, however, has not disclosed when the product will come to India or which publishers it is in talks with
Search giant Google is in talks with publishers to launch its News Showcase product in India, the company said in a press briefing on Wednesday. The company, however, didn’t disclose when the product will come to India or which publishers it is in talks with. The News Showcase product is a billion dollar initiative from Google, to work with news publishers around the world for showing news on Google.
“We rely very much on objective criteria and we think it’s really important that we’re comprehensive," said Kare Beddoe, head of news, web and publishing product partnerships, APAC at Google. Beddoe said the company looks at criteria such as membership in established associations, publisher traffic that organizations have and more. “Where such a thing exists, we look at government certifications if that is something that’s relevant to the market. We think it’s important that we are both broad and objective, and rely on third party criteria, as opposed to creating some form of relationship that would create an imbalance in the market," she added. She also said the company tries to ensure it doesn’t “gravitate to one side of the political aisle".
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The Google News Showcase was announced back in October last year by Google chief executive officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai. He said in a blog post at the time that the product was the biggest financial commitment Google had made to date. As part of the initiative, Google will pay publishers to “create and curate high-quality content" for a “different kind of online news experience".
News Showcase has also found itself in the thick of Australia’s controversial News Bargaining Code, which requires platforms like Google and Facebook to strike deals with publishers in order to disseminate news through their services. While Facebook initially pulled all news from its platform after the law was enforced, Google struck a deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and some other publishers, through its News Showcase product.
Google and Facebook had both opposed Australia’s regulation, which may become a blueprint for other countries that are formulating regulations for Big Tech platforms. While the government is yet to take a stance on the matter, some have called for similar regulations to be enforced in India as well.
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