Google yesterday launched a NT$300 million (US$9.74 million) fund to facilitate the digital transformation of the news industry in Taiwan, with the US tech company expected to hold a second round of talks with local media outlets to address the issue of sharing revenue with publishers.
The launch of the Taiwan News Digital Co-prosperity Fund came after the first round of talks between Google, Taiwanese media outlets and a cross-ministerial task force led by the Ministry of Digital Affairs wrapped up, Deputy Minister of Digital Affairs Lee Huai-jen (李懷仁) told a news conference in Taipei.
“We are glad that the first round of talks has yielded this result,” Lee said. “This is the first step. We believe more progress will be made going forward... We want to see more collaborations between Google and news outlets through more talks.”
Photo: CNA
The ministry welcomes the initiative from Google and supports local publishers’ call for technology companies to pay publishers for linking to their content, Lee said.
The ministry stands by its statement that resorting to legislation to regulate the payment of news content is “always an option,” he added.
A new round of negotiations is set to take place later this month, Lee said.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc has also approached the ministry to introduce a similar program, Lee said in response to a reporter’s question.
The Taiwan News Digital Co-prosperity Fund, tailor-made for the local news industry, is “an innovative initiative and a new model to support the digital future and prosperity of the local news ecosystem,” Michaela Browning, Google vice president of government affairs and public policy in Asia Pacific, told the news conference.
“It will provide N$300 million in three years to support publishers to strengthen their digital capabilities, expand their reach and improve organization’s engagement,” Browning said.
The Digital Transformation Association, which helps manage the fund, said it would start accepting applications in May.
As Google has introduced a similar initiative in the EU, it might provide a model for the association to run the fund in Taiwan, the group said.
Google said Taiwan plays a substantial role in assisting the company in developing new hardware, making Taiwan the biggest hardware development center only after its US headquarters.
Google plans to launch a second hardware development center soon, Tina Lin (林雅芳), managing director of sales and operations at Google Taiwan, told the news conference.
The construction of the center in New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
Google also plans to introduce the company’s first semiconductor research program to Taiwan later this year, Lin said. Students from four local universities will be involved in this program, she said.
Minister of Digital Affair Audrey Tang (唐鳳) told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting at the legislature’s Transportation Committee that the fund is “a welcome development,” and confirmed that Meta is formulating a similar plan.
“Establishing a fund is a relatively achievable goal for digital platforms, compared with mandatory bargaining with news media outlets over pricing of news content, as is done in Australia,” Tang said.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS