Google plays the $53 billion impact in Australia card

Google bets on its economic impact in Australia, as its latest strategy to fight new legislation. The Australian project, which should become a law soon, would make tech giants pay for the content they show on their platforms.

Thus, Mel Silva, VP, Google Australia & New Zealand, tries to prove that Google is providing businesses and users with a combined 53$ billion in benefits, annually. Her point of view comes after the giant threatened that Aussies might lose their free access to its tools.

Numbers to show its impact in Australia

According to the article Mel Silva published, “1.3 million businesses receive 39$ billion in benefits through increasing revenues.” Also, she considers that they gain millions of connections with customers and become more efficient, as they save time and money.

In her article, Silva claims that consumers also receive benefits. And these would be: convenience and access to information, that would represent $14 billion.

In fact she referred to Google’s apps and platforms and came with the benefits they offer. Thus, according to Silva, search saves users five days a week. Also, drivers save more than 5.5 hours per year by using Google Maps. Moreover, Australian app developers would have earned more than $600 million using Google Play.

All these numbers seem to have a clear purpose: to show that most of the revenues go to businesses: 60% to the small ones and 90% to non-tech industries.

Google bets on its long term results

According to the post, Google’s impact in Australia should count a lot. Australian’s office had 1 employee in 2002 and grew to 1,800 in 2020. Also, Google Ads and Google Play support also brought over 100,000 jobs.

Moreover, in her post, Mel Silva says that many businesses moved online during 2020 and had to use Google’s free tools and services. The company’s representative also comes with an example of a business owner, to show how she managed to significantly grow her revenue during the pandemic.

Based on these numbers, Google’s VP ends her post with the company’s hope that “we look forward to continuing to support that ambition.”

Still, this new approach comes after the company threatened Aussies, back in August, that they might have to pay for its “free services,” if the law enters into force.

Then, just a few days ago, Google blocked some news websites‘ results in Australia. It called this an “experiment” meant to determine the value of its services to the news outlets.

Still, the authorities do not seem to be impressed and came to say that tech giants are just the first to see stricter regulation.