Google has published findings from a recent experiment in which it removed news from search results for 1% of users across eight European markets for 2.5 months.
The tech giant claims the results show that news has little to no impact on its advertising business.
The test was conducted in response to European copyright laws that require Google to compensate publishers for using snippets of their content. However, Google argues that publishers overestimate the value of their journalism to its platform. According to its report, the financial impact of removing news was “statistically indistinguishable from zero, either overall or by country.”
This finding could serve as a bargaining chip for Google in negotiations with European publishers. However, the company is treading carefully, having already faced significant regulatory scrutiny over its handling of news content.
In France, Google was fined over half a billion dollars for its approach to copyright negotiations. Meanwhile, Germany’s competition authority has forced Google to make changes regarding its treatment of news content.
Regulatory concerns already influenced the scope of Google’s test. Initially, France was included in the experiment, but Google abandoned that portion after a French court warned it could face fines for violating a prior agreement with antitrust regulators. Germany was also notably excluded from the trial.
