Mountain View, California — The passion for publishers’ hearts and wallets intensified Wednesday, barely a day after Apple officially disclosed details of its new App Store subscription service, search engine titan Google announced the launch of Google One Pass, its online charging service for newspapers and magazines, a service that lets publishers set their own prices and terms for their digital content.
The service, dubbed as Google One Pass, gives publishers new ways to sell content on the Web and mobile devices. An important factor that is noteworthy in Google’s rival service is that it offers two big differences from Apple’s: content providers will get to keep 90 percent of revenue from One Pass sales and publishers will retain control of consumer data.
Outgoing Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who becomes Google’s executive chairman in April, announced One Pass at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, a day after Apple unveiled new rules for selling subscriptions that some publishers found too restrictive. The announcement came via the official Google blog.
“With Google One Pass, publishers can maintain direct relationships with their customers and give readers access to digital content across websites and mobile apps,” Lee Shirani, director of business product management at Google Commerce, wrote in a blog post.
Rumor had been swirling around of such an online payment system for months, but Google obviously timed its announcement to publicize the fact that its terms are more favorable–and flexible–to publishers than Apple’s.
“Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password. Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers do not have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices,” wrote Shirani on the company blog.
The service will also empower publishers to customize how and when they charge for content, and select whether they want to provide subscriptions, metered access, free content, or single articles. Existing print subscribers can also be provided with free access.
“We take care of the rest, including payments technology handled via Google Checkout,” Shirani wrote.
Google’s One Pass offers better terms to content providers than Apple’s App Store subscription plan. (Credit: Google)
According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s One Pass will allow publishers to sell newspaper or magazine subscriptions through the Web or mobile devices, taking 10 percent of the revenue through its Google Checkout payment service. Whereas, Apple said Tuesday that it would take 30 percent of subscription revenue from purchases made inside apps, although publishers can continue to sell subscriptions through other means and keep all the revenue.
In a FAQ posted on the One Pass site, Google said it is unleashing the service because “Google cares a lot about helping high quality content thrive online and about the future of journalism.”
Furthermore, Google will also offer publishers information about subscribers, including ZIP codes and e-mail addresses, which is valuable for marketing purposes. Apple agreed to give publishers information from subscribers only if subscribers opt in to the program. People who subscribe using Google’s service will have their data shared unless they opt out.
However, Google said it will inform customers about any information that is being shared, Google spokeswoman Jeannie Hornung said in an e-mail.
“Our objective is to provide an open and flexible platform that furthers our commitment to support publishers, journalism and access to quality content,” said Shirani, in a blog post.
This enhanced flexibility may prove important to publishers, who analysts said would have difficulty profiting under Apple’s rules. But even a 10 percent cut may be difficult for some publishers to stomach, said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester research.
The dueling online subscription services are intended at attracting content producers to their respective mobile devices and come as struggling newspapers and magazines seek to boost revenue from the Web.
Google stated that One Pass “is currently intended for periodicals, such as news and magazines, but is a flexible payment system that can be used for many other types of content.”
Google said its launch partners include German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online and Stern.de, France’s Le Nouvel Observateur and Spain’s Prisa. The search engine giants US partners are Rust Communications, publisher of the Southeast Missourian newspaper, Media General, which operates 18 television stations and 21 daily newspapers, and Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science.
As the enthusiasm and market for content friendly mobile devices like smartphones and tablets continues to grow at a sharp pace, the stakes are very high and things could get ugly as friction develops between content providers and Apple, with Google doing its best to drive a wedge between the two.
The company said One Pass is currently available for publishers in Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.