CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – The Australian Prime Minister said on Monday that Microsoft was confident it could fill the void if Google pursued its threat to remove its search engine from Australia.
A Google executive told a Senate hearing last month that it would likely make its search engine unavailable in Australia if the government continues with plans to charge technology giants for news content.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had since spoken with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella about his search engine Bing filling the space.
“I can tell you, Microsoft is pretty sure” that Australians wouldn’t be any worse off, Morrison told the National Press Club of Australia.
“These are big technology companies and what I think is important for Australia is that we create the rules that are good for our people,” said Morrison.
“Having a news environment in this country that is sustainable and commercially supported is essential to the functioning of democracies,” he added.
Although Bing is Australia’s second most popular search engine, it only takes up 3.7% of the market share, the Australian newspaper reported. Google says it costs 95%.
Nadella started the Zoom conversation with Morrison last week, the paper reported.
A Microsoft spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The mandatory code of conduct proposed by the government aims to make Google and Facebook pay Australian media companies fairly for using news content that the tech giants are transferring from news sites.
Google has been pressured by authorities elsewhere to pay for news. Last month, it signed a deal with a group of French publishers paving the way for the company to pay for digital copyrights. Under the agreement, Google negotiates individual licensing agreements with newspapers, where payments are based on factors such as published daily and monthly internet traffic.
But Google is opposed to the Australian plan because it would have less control over how much it should pay. Under the Australian system, an arbitration panel will make a binding decision on payment if an online platform and a news company cannot agree on a price for news.
Morrison said he would like to see “more alignment between the world’s economies” on antitrust and competition policies.