Google Inc. is undercutting rival Apple Inc. with an online payment system that lets publishers keep more of the fees charged for reading their digital editions.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt unveiled the one-stop payment service, called One Pass, at Berlin’s Humboldt University on Wednesday. Three German publishers, including the nation’s leading Axel Springer AG, already have signed up
Besides Germany, One Pass is available to publishers in Canada, France, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S. Google said Media General Inc., publisher of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Rust Communications, owner of the Southeast Missourian, plan to use One Pass.
The announcement came a day after Apple rolled out a long-awaited subscription service for applications designed for its iPhone and iPad. Apple is demanding a 30 percent cut of all subscriptions sold on those mobile apps while Google is charging 10 percent.
“We aren’t in this to make money. Google makes money in other ways,” Schmidt said. “We are trying to get money to people who are producing high-quality content.”
Google makes most of its money from digital ads, including some that appear alongside online stories from newspapers and magazines.
The strategy has turned Google into one of the world’s most profitable companies, fostering resentment among some publishers, which believe the Internet search engine has prospered by showing excerpts of newspaper and magazine stories.
Most of the Web content has been given away during the past 15 years, but more publishers already have started or are planning to impose fees to access content digitally.
Google’s one-stop payment service is similar to one that debuted last year from a group led by Steve Brill, founder of Court TV and American Lawyer.
Google will give publishers some of the personal information that it collects about their subscribers. By contrast, Apple isn’t sharing that data with publishers unless subscribers give their explicit approval. Publishers say they need to know who their readers are to help sell advertising and for other marketing purposes.
Schmidt also announced that Google was funding a Berlin-based institute in conjunction with Humboldt University. It would examine the evolution of the Internet and its impact on society.
Google has clashed repeatedly with German authorities over data privacy issues and been forced to tweak some of its services to satisfy strict regulations here.
Schmidt underlined the importance of allowing users the “choice” of how much private information they want to share and stressed the importance of the new foundation as a place to discuss such issues.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More