Evidence of meeting #4 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jacob Glick  Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

If you're clicking on an ad on YouTube, then somebody is making money--usually the artist and YouTube.

When we're talking about monetization, there's no magic to it. I mean, this is a familiar business model to the content industry. It seems new, and we say “new media”, but ad-supported content is as old as the hills, right?

What's new about it is that it's measurable and it can be targeted. It can put relevant ads in front of you. For example, if I am reading a magazine--and magazines are largely an ad-supported medium--and there's an ad for Lexus cars, well, that ad is irrelevant to me because I have a Honda and I'm not in the market for a car.

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON

Especially not for a Lexus.

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

So why are they putting it in front of me? They're paying good money to that magazine to put that ad in front of somebody who really doesn't care to see it. Part of the opportunity online is to put relevant ads in front of people. This is what you're going to see, by the way.... I'm sure that you're all waiting with bated breath for the iPad to be released next month--

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON

The chair is going to cut me off in a minute--

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

I'm sorry--

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger

You're going to be cut off right now anyway.

If you want to, Mr. Glick, please finish.

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

I apologize for waxing philosophic about iPads, but suffice it to say that you'll see online business models evolving for print media as well. So you will see relevant ads going into things like online magazines in devices like iPads. By the way, in case anyone thought I was here only to promote Google products, I can promote other companies' products--it's for equal opportunity.

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON

Now you've extended his time--my time.

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger

That's very good. Thank you.

Ms. Leslie, you're back on again.

12:15 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

You've talked about how there are infinite opportunities to access Canadian content. Do you have any thoughts on how we actually work--when I say “we”, I mean government--to promote this? Yes, it's infinite, but how do we make sure people are getting it and that our artists are being recognized, that our creators and innovators are being recognized?

Also, you talked about dogmatics--the two dogmatic sides on this issue. I was wondering if you could forward to the clerk after the meeting any ideas for witnesses who aren't dogmatic, for people we might not normally look at or have considered and who could really shed some light on this for the committee.

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

Sure. I'm happy to do that.

On your other point about promoting Canadian content, I think one of the terrific things about this online universe, such as it is, is that any number of promotional vehicles are available at little or no cost that are just as effective as multi-million dollar ad campaigns.

For example, that's how viral videos get popular. People post them to Twitter. They post them to their Facebook accounts. They send them to their friends.

Combine that with a purposeful, targeted ad campaign, and for a very low investment of money up front, you can make content really--

12:15 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

That's sort of from an entrepreneur's point of view. Is there a role for government in this?

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

I hadn't thought of it that way, because I think of this from the user perspective. I'd have to give that some additional consideration.

My instinct would be to recommend to government to think like the user. This is a user-driven world. These are user-driven technologies. To the extent that governments don't think like people, like their citizens, then they will miss it.

12:15 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

Okay.

I was wondering if you also had ideas about how we—again, “we” being government—can actually help—

12:15 p.m.

Conservative

Royal Galipeau Conservative Ottawa—Orléans, ON

Who's the government?

12:15 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

We in this room, working together collaboratively, I hope.

How do we help Canadian industries deal with emerging media or take advantage of emerging media?

12:15 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

I think there's an existing economic incentive to do it, which is that there's money to be made from it for creators and for innovators. You don't have to push people too hard to do it. they want to do it.

I don't know...is that a dumb answer?

12:20 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

No. We want to promote Canadian business and Canadian innovation. We want Canadian companies to be successful. Some of them don't naturally.... I come from an energy efficiency background. People don't necessarily invest in energy efficiency knowing that it'll save them money in the long run. Sometimes they need a little bit of help.

12:20 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

Yes. This is a great question, because it's one of the paradoxes of the online landscape. If you look at what Canadians are doing online, you'll see that Canadians are using these technologies in droves. Canadians are some of the biggest adopters of online technology in the world. Canadian business has been a little more reticent.

If you look at the e-commerce portals of various Canadian retailers, for example, you'll see that they are not as robust as their U.S. counterparts. Or if you look at the extent to which Canadian businesses are advertising online, you'll see that it is much less than what U.S. businesses do. But if this is where the eyeballs are, so to speak, I would expect that ultimately Canadian business would logically follow if we have a competitive landscape. It is definitely one of the biggest challenges as the economy and perceptions transition.

I don't know what the role for government is, other than being a cheerleader, other than ensuring that the best possible infrastructure exists and that it's open so that therefore the opportunities are available to people. I think that's a very important role for government in this context.

There's another thing that I would say for government, which I think goes to your question and the questions of other members earlier, that is, what should Canada's digital strategy be? Obviously it has to include broadband and has to include copyright. It should also include--and I don't know if members of this committee have considered this previously--open data. It should include making those vast amounts of government data that are sitting on a shelf somewhere broadly available to entrepreneurs and to the public, to mash up, to create...to use as a platform for their own innovations. You've already seen this a little bit in Vancouver, with the open—

12:20 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

[Inaudible--Editor]...brought this up last year.

12:20 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

Okay. All right, then, they—

12:20 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

No, but the Vancouver example--

12:20 p.m.

Canada Policy Counsel, Google Inc.

Jacob Glick

That's right. Vancouver, Edmonton, and Toronto are all doing this. It's all happening at the municipal level. Where's “data.gc.ca”? That's my question for today.

12:20 p.m.

NDP

Megan Leslie NDP Halifax, NS

Thank you.

12:20 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger

Thank you for the question.

We'll now move on to Mr. Garneau, please.