Evidence of meeting #36 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:25 p.m.
Vice-President, News, Google
That all depends on the individual publishers and what they want to do with their unsold inventory. It also depends on what networks they use to sell that inventory. There are various kinds of auction processes and so on and so forth.
1:25 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
Thank you very much.
Is it also true to say that the revenue sharing from advertising you're evoking mostly comes from YouTube?
1:25 p.m.
Vice-President, News, Google
I'll let Jason answer that. He's closer to the figures than I am.
1:25 p.m.
Counsel, Public Policy and Government Relations, Google Canada
That's actually from our display advertising, all the banner ads and related ads that you see basically on websites. Actually, the majority is directly from that. It includes YouTube advertising as well, but is mostly actually the banner ads and so forth.
1:25 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
And this would be shared in some percentage with publishers of what at that time?
1:25 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
If I go on a Google page, and I do a search, there are a few banners here and there. Is that revenue shared with someone?
1:25 p.m.
Counsel, Public Policy and Government Relations, Google Canada
Okay, to clarify, those are search ads, and they're actually not, because in those cases there is no content that is being provided. It's in display advertising, the banner ads—all the advertising that appears on the website that you visit. That is basically monetized, where they've actually activated the display network.
1:25 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
So let's say when we use the news snippets as teasers, there is no revenue sharing at that moment, and I can understand that. I was in the recording music industry at one time and I desperately wanted the broadcasters to play my music. I never charged them for them to play it, besides the small SODRAC fees. I wanted them to play it.
Is it your assumption that our media, our publishers, should be happy to have this exposure so that people get to see their websites? Is that the overall thinking on this?
1:25 p.m.
Vice-President, News, Google
Indeed. In fact, I think we know that a vast majority of the world's publishers are delighted with that experience. Let's point out that their inclusion in Google News and their inclusion in Google Search is at their option.
I think it's important to know the metrics that drive us at Google News or Google Search. The metric that drives the Google News team is how many times we can get users to click. Each time they click, they go to that news website, right? That's important to us. If we're not getting them to click, then we're not surfacing the right kinds of content. It's all about driving traffic to that content.
1:30 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
That is why I will conclude by telling you that according to me, and according to simple logic, the world is happy to be seen on Google, just as music was happy to be played on radio across the world, but we had quotas here in Canada for Canadian content, and Quebec content, and French content. So you may want to wonder what you can bring to the table to help us not sink down the drain but to remain pertinent in our environment.
I thank you very much for participating. Thank you very much for being here. It's much appreciated that our invitation was taken seriously.
Mr. Gingras, I hope to meet you soon.
1:30 p.m.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
Thank you very much, Mr. Kee and Mr. Brindle.
The meeting is adjourned.