Google Rolls Out Paid News Showcase Platform To Bypass Australia Content Law

Alphabet Inc’s GOOG (NASDAQ: GOOGL) Google rolled out a News Showcase platform for offering news paid by it, including a content agreement with the Australian publishers, Reuters reports.
This rollout came just after Canberra made it mandatory for Google and Facebook, Inc (NASDAQ: FB) to pay Australian media companies for content under a law introduced in the Australian parliament in December. Google and Facebook had initially protested against the law.
Google alleged that Australian news media businesses would gain an unfair advantage from the law.
However, Google’s exit from Australia could prove beneficial for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), whose search engine Bing has just a minuscule 3.6% market share in Australia versus Google’s 94.5% share. Microsoft President Brad Smith’s support towards the new law further fuelled concerns.
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai had a meeting with the Australian Prime Minister on Thursday over the new law as per the CNBC report.
The launch of News Showcase in Australia will involve payment to seven domestic outlets for content.
The financial terms concerning the payment remain undisclosed.
Google is also exploring options to forge collaboration with other influential Australian publishers.
As per the report, Reuters inked a deal with Google to become the first global news provider to Google News Showcase last month.
Price Action: GOOG shares closed lower by 0.37% at $2,062.37 on Thursday.