Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Facebook announced Wednesday that it plans to spend at least $ 1 billion on the news industry over the next three years.
The announcement comes just days after a heated debate with the Australian government over how much Facebook should pay news publishers for content.
“We have invested $ 600 million since 2018 to support the news industry and we plan to have at least $ 1 billion over the next three years,” Nick Clegg, vice president of global affairs at Facebook, said in a blog post on Wednesday.
“Facebook is more than willing to partner with news publishers,” Clegg added. “We absolutely recognize that quality journalism is at the heart of how open societies work – informing and empowering citizens and empowering the strong.”
Last month, Facebook announced deals with several UK publishers, including The Guardian, Telegraph Media Group, Financial Times, Daily Mail Group and Sky News. As a result, publishers will see their content in Facebook News, which is a dedicated section within the Facebook application that contains clean and personalized news from hundreds of national, local and life publications.
Clegg said similar agreements have been reached with US publishers and that Facebook is in negotiations with publishers in Germany and France.
Facebook blocked news pages in Australia last Wednesday after the Australian government said it would introduce a new law that would require Facebook to pay publishers for linking to their stories.
The ban was short-lived, but Facebook on Monday struck a deal with the Australian government, which will see it add news pages back to its platform.
Google also plans to spend $ 1 billion on news over the next three years.
Google announced in October last year that it intends to pay publishers to create and organize content for a new mobile product called the Google News Showcase, which will initially air in Brazil and Germany before being launched in other countries.
Publishers, including Der Spiegel and Die Zeit in Germany and Folha de S.Paulo in Brazil, have signed up to be part of the launch program.
“The business model for newspapers – based on advertising and subscription revenue – has been evolving for more than a century as the public has turned to other sources,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.
“The Internet has been the last change and it certainly won’t be the last … We want to play our part in helping journalism in the 21st century.”