Google would owe Swiss media 154 million Swiss francs

A study calculated how much money Google and other search engines would owe Swiss media: CHF 154 million. At the moment, media houses and media professionals usually get nothing. Google criticized the research.

According to a study, journalistic content is an important factor in search engine success: users rate Google as more complete, of higher quality and more trustworthy when journalistic content is displayed.

The research published on Friday, which was commissioned by the Swiss Media Association itself, shows that Google is used more often and more intensively when it comes to journalism.

The study also calculated how much money the companies would have to pay to the Swiss media houses and media professionals if they were obliged to do so. It is apparently 154 million francs.

A “fair share” of 154 million

The authors of the study calculated the contribution of the Swiss media to the value of the ‘Google ecosystem’. Given the estimated CHF 1.1 billion ad revenue — Google doesn’t report — CHF 154 million would be “a fair share” according to the study.

According to the research, Swiss media companies and media professionals would not see any of this money because the money would remain within the “Google ecosystem”. To the study’s authors, this is clearly “a market failure that needs regulation.”

The publishers’ association has been demanding additional copyright for some time now. “The investigation shows that the additional copyright is necessary and urgent,” Andrea Masüger, president of the association, said in a statement. The work of journalists must be protected against the superiority of the tech giants.

Google: Journalism “almost irrelevant”

Google takes note of the investigation “with interest”, the company said at the request of the Keystone-SDA news agency. However, the findings would contradict “previous, neutral studies”.

Google specifically mentions the research of Sistrix, an analysis program for website rankings. This research shows that journalistic content is almost irrelevant to Google. Google, on the other hand, increases the reach of publishers with its services and thus generates extra income for them.

A total of 8 billion clicks on search results from Google Search and Google News are transferred to platforms of European publishers every month.

Google wants to have a say

The group announced to Keystone-SDA that it would “join the debate at the right time”. This debate will soon start when the Bundesrat submits a proposal for an additional copyright for consultation.

However, such a “Google tax” is partly controversial on the part of the bourgeoisie. The liberal think tank Avenir Suisse has already described the idea as “media funding through the back door”. The domestic media industry must be fed with money from foreign technology companies.

The Swiss media would benefit from the search engines. Your posts get more attention. If a user follows the link, there are several options for the publishers to monetize the content, for example through advertisements or a payment barrier.

Such additional copyright already exists in the EU and other countries. (sda)