Alphabet Inc’s Google on Tuesday launched Google News Showcase in India at a time the country is trying to weed out misinformation surrounding a ferocious second wave of Covid-19.
Indians have become increasingly reliant on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and messenger applications such as WhatsApp and Telegram for information related to the crisis.
Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice-president of Google India, and Brad Bender, vice-president of product management at Google, in a blog post on Tuesday said the programme incentivises and supports news publishers — 30 in number — to curate high quality content on Google’s News and Discover platforms, connecting readers with the news they need.
As part of licensing agreements with publishers, Google will pay participating news organisations to give readers access to a limited amount of paywalled content. This feature means readers will have the opportunity to read more of a publisher’s articles than they would otherwise be able to while encouraging them to subscribe. The financial details, however, were not revealed.
The partners include Telegraph India, ABP LIVE, the Hindu Group, HT Digital Streams Ltd, Indian Express Group, India TV, NDTV, Zee News, Amar Ujala, Deccan Herald, Punjab Kesari, IANS (Indo Asian News Service) and ANI.
“Today’s announcement comes at a particularly challenging moment in India, with Indians seeking out authoritative news and information as the Covid-19 crisis deepens,” Google said in its blog post.
The internet services major said that this facility builds on the News Showcase deals signed by 700 news publications in more than a dozen countries, including Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, UK, Australia, Czech Republic, Italy and Argentina, more than 90 per cent of them representing local or community news and discussions underway in several other countries.
Moreover, over the next three years, with increased support from the News Lab, Google plans to train 50,000 journalists and journalism students.
The internet major will focus on digital tools to aid verification and combat misinformation online. Further, several new training programmes are being introduced to help small and mid-sized publications achieve financial sustainability.
“The Indian news industry and its journalists have embraced technology to engage with readers and make data-driven decisions to improve their business and reporting efforts. We believe it’s important that digital platforms contribute to a sustainable, independent and diverse news ecosystem, working with journalists, news outlets and news associations,” the statement said.
According to the Ficci-EY Media and Entertainment industry report published in March 2021, online news subscribers grew between December 2019 and 2020 to reach over 450 million across mobile and desktop users of news sites, portals and aggregators. Online news and magazine app downloads increased 12 per cent in 2020.
