Facebook says many don't visit its platform with the intention of viewing news

By -

 It also says it is 'not healthy nor sustainable' to expect two private companies to be solely responsible for solving the challenges faced by the Australian media industry.

The federal government is hoping to make tech giants such as Facebook and Google pay for Australian content if it is a source of profit, and the country's consumer watchdog is leading the charge on a mandatory code of conduct to address "bargaining power imbalances" between news media businesses and digital platforms.


While Facebook doesn't agree that it possesses unequal bargaining power compared to some of the largest media companies in Australia, it said there is a level of merit in setting regulatory frameworks to provide confidence that it is contributing "appropriately" in the Australian news ecosystem.

The social media giant used its submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) Mandatory news media bargaining code Concepts paper to say it is hopeful the process will yield a "balanced, pragmatic, realistic code that does not encourage media concentration or reduce diversity and plurality in the Australian media sector".

"If the ACCC can act in an evidence-based way, this code could give Australian news publishers, digital platforms and, ultimately, Australian consumers, confidence in the way ahead," Facebook said.

However, Facebook said its users barely use its platform for news.

It said news content represents only a very small fraction of the content in the average Facebook users' News Feed because Facebook is "primarily a service used to connect with family and friends".

"Even if there is indirect value to digital platforms from news content, it is not healthy nor sustainable to expect that two private companies, Facebook and Google, are solely responsible for supporting a public good and solving the challenges faced by the Australian media industry," Facebook said.

"If there were no news content available on Facebook in Australia, we are confident the impact on Facebook's community metrics and revenues in Australia would not be significant, because news content is highly substitutable and most users do not come to Facebook with the intention of viewing news."

Facebook's News Feed generated approximately 2.3 billion "organic referrals" to Australian news publisher domains from January through May 2020, estimated by the social media giant to be worth around AU$195.8 million to Australian publishers.

Australia-based news publishers also generated approximately 27 million "organic views" in News Feed on tagged branded content posts during the same period.

In addition, Facebook said Australia-based news publishers also participated in revenue share programs, such as its In-Stream Video advertising program, earning approximately AU$2.1 million over the five months.

"These are just some aspects of the value that flows to Australian news businesses from Facebook that we have been able to quantify to date," Facebook said.

"In addition to this, we continue to ramp up our direct financial contributions to the news industry -- not to make a profit -- rather because we believe news is a public good and it plays an important social function," it added.

Similarly, Google wants to have a discussion "based on facts" with government and regulators when it comes to the profitability of online news in Australia, saying the value of news isn't about economics.

Like Facebook, Google said it barely makes any money from news content -- a mere AU$10 million in revenue last year.

For 2019, Facebook Australia reported AU$23.3 million in after-tax profit, on revenue of AU$125.5 million.

Of the company's total revenue, the social network took in AU$125 million for its online advertising sales, which is a significant increase from the AU$94 million it made from advertisements in FY17. The remaining revenue came from services, which amounted to almost AU$700,000.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Hacker steals data of millions of Bulgarians, emails it to local media

By -
Image
  Source of the data breach appears to be the country's National Revenue Agency A mysterious hacker has stolen the personal details of millions of Bulgarians and has emailed download links to the stolen data to local news publications. The data's origin is believed to be the country's National Revenue Agency (NRA), a department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance. In a  message posted on its website  on Monday, the NRA said it was working with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to investigate the hack. "We are currently verifying whether the data is real," said the NRA. Hours after this article's publication, the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior  confirmed the hack . HACKER STOLE 110 DATABASES, LEAKED 57 According to reports from local media [ 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ], who received part of the data, the hacker said they stole the personal details of over five million Bulgarians, of the country's total ...
Read more

​Linux totally dominates supercomputers

By -
Image
It finally happened. Today, all 500 of the world's top 500 supercomputers are running Linux. Linux rules supercomputing. This day has been coming since 1998, when Linux first appeared on the TOP500 Supercomputer list . Today it finally happened:  All 500 of the world's fastest supercomputers are running Linux . The last two non-Linux systems, a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX, dropped off the  November 2017 TOP500 Supercomputer list . Overall, China now leads the supercomputing race with 202 computers to the US' 144. China also leads the US in aggregate performance. China's supercomputers represent 35.4 percent of the Top500's flops, while the US trails with 29.6 percent. With an anti-science regime in charge of the government, America will only continue to see its technological lead decline. When the  first Top500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993 , Linux was barely more than a toy. It hadn't even adopted Tux as its masc...
Read more

Microsoft tries to stem its self-made collaboration-tool confusion

By -
Image
Microsoft is using this week's Ignite conference to try to help clarify its collaboration-tool strategy. Here's how SharePoint, Teams and Yammer figure in the mix. Choice is good. But too much choice, especially when it comes to collaboration tools, has been a problem for Microsoft. This isn't news to customers, partners or Microsoft execs themselves. But at the company's Ignite IT Pro conference in Orlando this week, Microsoft execs took a step to try to clarify the company's strategy and messaging in this area. Microsoft Office 365 Marketing chief Ron Markezich kicked off the conference this week with a slide entitled "Microsoft 365 Teamwork: Where to Start a Conversation." That slide attempts to do what  Microsoft initially attempted with a 60-plus-page whitepaper : Clarify which collaboration tools customers should use when. The slide, which features SharePoint -- and its files, sites and content storage at the center -- is broken down into t...
Read more