See "21 décembre 2010 - Intervention d'Eric Besson - Price Minister" - here (French).
"..Or certains services, comme Google ou Facebook, occupent une place sans cesse croissante sur ces réseaux, sans contribuer d''aucune manière à leur financement. Ces sociétés sont basées dans des pays étrangers, ne paient aucun impôt en France, et occupent dans le même temps des positions très dominantes sur le marché Français. Cette situation est inédite. Google capte par exemple plus de 90 % du marché français de la publicité sur les moteurs de recherche, sans payer aucun impôt en France ni rémunérer aucun opérateur de réseaux. Sa filiale YouTube peut occuper plus de la moitié de la bande passante de certains réseaux, sans contribuer d''aucune manière au déploiement et à l''entretien de ces réseaux."
Similar statements have been made by the CEOs of leading European carriers - Telefonica (here) and Deutsche Telekom (here)
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So now we know what sound a dinosaur makes when it's dying.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the most ill-advised, technically-ignorant examples of telecoms policy I've seen. Not only is it a near-impossibility to enforce, it also has a huge potential to backfire.
All it takes is for Google or Facebook to call their bluff and withdraw (or just limit) services to French subscribers. Lets see if "churn" among voters outweighs loyalty to favourite websites.
In fact, there's a very strong argument for Google or Facebook to start charging broadband operators, in the same fashion that premium TV content firms charge cable operators. French telecom operators are not contributing to Google's R&D costs, yet their customers are primarily buying broadband to access those applications.
The "right" way to do this is not confrontation (the telcos will lose) but something that is win-win, such as an affiliate model for advertising. If FT/Orange and other operators help provide a better user experience (and ideally better advert-targetting data), Google will sell more ads, and give them a slice of the uplift.
The clamour of network operators appears to be "We're dumb, they're clever, so please tax them Mr Government".
Dean Bubley
Disruptive Analysis
Hello Dean,
ReplyDeleteI don't buy to your point of view, i really don't accept that google doesn't pay taxes with the money they are doing from french people. i pay 33% of taxes and i'm glad to do it, i don't see no reasons why google should escape this.
Then i bet that if FT, free sfr who makes 95 % of the french internet traffic shut down the pipes, google will come and pay, don't think that french eyeball not having access to youtube or facebook will make an other revolution ;) furthermore it could give ideas to other European Incumbents.