Australian PM Scott Morrison said that Microsoft was ready to grow the presence of its search tool Bing if Google was to exit the market.
Australian law will force Google and Facebook to pay domestic media outlets
Software giant Microsoft is confident its search product Bing can fill the gap in Australia if Google pulls its search over required payments to media outlets, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.
Australia has introduced laws that would force internet giant Google and social media heavyweight Facebook to negotiate payments to domestic media outlets whose content links drive traffic to their platforms.
However, the Big Tech firms have called the laws unworkable and said last month they would withdraw key services from Australia if the regulations went ahead. Those services include Google's search engine, which has 94 percent of the country's search market, according to industry data.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has since spoken with Morrison about the new rules, the tech company told Reuters, and on Monday, Morrison said the software company was ready to grow the presence of its search tool Bing, the distant Number 2 player.
"I can tell you, Microsoft's pretty confident, when I spoke to Satya," Morrison told reporters in Canberra, without giving further detail of the conversation.
"We just want the rules in the digital world to be the same that exist in the real world, in the physical world," Morrison added.
A Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed the discussion took place but declined to comment, because the company was not directly involved in the laws.
"We recognise the importance of a vibrant media sector and public interest journalism in a democracy and we recognise the challenges the media sector has faced over many years through changing business models and consumer preferences," the spokeswoman said.
A Google representative was not immediately available for comment.
A day earlier, Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had requested a meeting over the law, and that they had talked, but that he would not back down on the change.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
Does WhatsApp's new privacy policy spell the end for your privacy? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.
For details of the latest launches and news from Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo and other companies at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, visit our MWC 2025 hub.