This Week in Australian Startups #58, 10th March 2024
This Week in Australian Startups #58, 10th March 2024
Meta recently announced it’s not going to renew any agreements under the News Media Bargaining Code.
Across most media in Australia, there has been an outrage and rightly so - from their perspective at least. Under the Bargaining Code they get paid for the distribution of their content across Meta’s platforms. The logic is fairly straightforward, a news publishers content is used on Meta’s platforms and in turn Meta makes advertising revenue off it and a share of that should be given to the publisher that made that content.
Well, Meta is saying that it won’t let news publishers post their content anymore and as such won’t be paying them either. Personally, I don’t see what’s controversial about this at all particularly given Meta claims its users don’t come to them for news.
I’ve previously written my thoughts on this topic last year when Canada was seeking to introduce its own version of the News Media Bargaining Code, along with why Meta doesn’t care too much about news on its platforms. My view hasn’t changed, and is only reinforced by talk of the Australian Government “designating” Meta under the agreement - forcing them to enter a negotiation with news publishers or face fines.
Anthony Albanese was quoted by The Australian “The idea that one company can profit from others’ investment – not just investment in capital but investment in people, investment in journalism – is unfair. That’s not the Australian way.”
All I can take from this quote is that fundamentally Albanese does not understand how platforms, and aggregators work. Big media is used to controlling distribution, an era where the only way to get news was through a handful on printed newspapers or on your TV at 6pm. They have not really adjusted their business models with the changes in technology or consumer behaviour.
Aggregators like Facebook have emerged, and people no longer go directly to news publishers in the same numbers like they used to. There is some validity in the case of other aggregators who do directly benefit from news such as Google, who has not signalled any intention of not renewing agreements.
If Google stopped news on its platforms they would see a material impact on their revenue, as would platforms like X. But as with all aggregators all content is willingly shared by news publishers. If they don’t want their content used without compensation, which is their right to do so, then they don’t need to share their content at all. The reality is news publishers need Meta significantly more than they need them, the traffic they receive from platforms drives their own ad and subscription revenue. The News Media Bargaining Code, from Meta’s point of view is really big media new publishers double dipping.
It’s petty for big media to call Meta selfish when they act in their own self interest as much as Meta does. If news does indeed represent an extremely small portion of value Meta’s users get then there is no incentive for Meta to continue offering news, but the loss for news publishers is material. It’s not an even exchange of value, and as such what happens next will be really interesting to see unfold. If the Government does designate Meta, and potentially go one step further by forcing them to serve news in Australia what does that say about capitalism and the freedom for a business to decide what services it does and doesn’t offer? Maybe the news publishers upset with Meta should band together and make a news aggregator - Meta shouldn’t care, as they have time and time again stated they don’t see commercial value or interest from their users in the news on their platforms.
However, there are some valid concerns raised around the cost of investigative journalism, and rural/local news. If news publishers can’t run a business that can fund this then either the media landscape is going to continue to change and that may not include a place for big media as they operate today. And if the argument is that it’s a public service, then it’s worth considering how the public/government might fund this and what that should look like. In the UK there is the controversial TV licence fee that funds the BBC. If there is a tax imposed, then it should not be going to for profit private businesses, but to support truly independent journalism.
Australia
Top News
South Australian government backs women with female-founded business grants (Startup Daily)
Think the gender pay gap is bad? The startup equity gap is even worse (SmartCompany)
Beyond International Women’s Day: How businesses can implement equality measures (SmartCompany)
Infensa Bioscience spins medical miracle from spider venom (SmartCompany)
“Breaking Female Founders”: FOI reveals more “appalling” BFF grant issues (SmartCompany)
Liquor Loot collapses into administration in latest setback to online alcohol retail (SmartCompany)
US growth on the menu for AI-powered dietary requirement app Foodini (BNA)
Urban.com.au owners acquire comparison site Homeshelf, form new parent company New Home Network (BNA)
Gilmour Space receives green light for Australia's first orbital spaceport (BNA)
Redbubble operator Articore scores second court win against Hells Angels over claims of copyright infringement(BNA)
Amazon books losses on $6b Aussie sales as retail and cloud boom (AFR)
Google’s plan to dodge day in court over ‘killing’ Aussie start-up Unlockd (AFR)
ASX tech dream stalls as de-listings stack up (AFR)
Quadrant swoops on $100M Canva stake in Blackbird sale (AFR)
A group of emerging female founders are positioned to grow their wealth substantially in the next decade (AFR)
Till was paying senior managers as ‘contractors’ before fire sale (AFR)
Herbert Smith Freehills study: Tech founders ‘delusional’ about falling company valuations (AFR)
WiseTech billionaire Richard White offers students $300k to complete degree (The Australian)
Apple, Google app stores and video game developers face scrutiny in ACCC's big tech crackdown (Capital Brief)
Iress shares dive after denying knowledge of PE approach (Capital Brief)
Australian space startup Esper wants to build hyperspectral sats for cheap (TechCrunch)
Linktree Jumps Into Social Commerce With Sephora (The Information)
NVIDIA Inception partners with Build Club to infuse resources into select Build Club programs (Annie Liao)
Employment Hero lashes out at investor Hostplus over superannuation onboarding plans (The Australian)
Applications open for Techstars Tech Central Sydney Accelerator 2024 program (Kirstin Hunter)
Employment Hero CEO and founder Ben Thompson challenges Hostplus CEO David Elia to $1M of free advertising (Ben Thompson)
Startmate February 2024 Monthly Review (Startmate)
Funding Rounds
Nullify, which augments AppSec teams with AI agents capable of carrying out multiple levels of product security work autonomously, has raised a $5.2M Seed round for a US launch (Startup Daily | The Australian)
Anni, a wellness advice marketplace, has raised a $1M Seed round (Startup Daily | SmartCompany)
Kismet, the healthtech startup that helps you automatically create a shortlist of verified service providers, has raised a $12.6M Seed round (Startup Daily | SmartCompany | BNA)
Jupiter Ionics, a green ammonia agtech startup which is developing a new approach to synthesis of carbon-neutral ammonia and ammonia derivatives, has raised a $9M Series A round (Startup Daily | BNA)
Gridcog, clean energy software startup, has raised $6.4M led by UK-based, early-stage investor AlbionVC (SmartCompany | The Australian)
Deep Space, a digital design and construction data capture and analytics platform, raised an undisclosed amount from VentureOn Partners (VentureOn)
Esper, a startup that is launching a satellite to provide hyperspectral imaging of Earth for applications in agriculture, mining, and environmental monitoring, raised $1M from Stellar Ventures, Day One Ventures and Dolby Family Ventures (TechCrunch)
Around The World
Top News
Sam Altman will return to OpenAI's board with three new directors (Reuters)
Apple fined €1.84BN in EU over anti-steering on iOS music streaming market (TechCrunch)
Anthropic claims its new AI chatbot models beat OpenAI’s GPT-4 (TechCrunch)
Wyoming wants to become the Delaware of DAOs with new crypto law for decentralized autonomous organizations (Fortune)
Russian spies keep hacking into Microsoft in ‘ongoing attack,’ company says (TechCrunch)
After terminating Epic Games’ developer account on Wednesday, Apple said it will reinstate the Fortnite maker’s access to publish iOS apps in Europe (TechCrunch)
How Apple Sank About $1 Billion a Year Into a Car It Never Built (Bloomberg)
How Klarna’s IPO Prep Got Tangled Up in a Boardroom Drama (Bloomberg)
Andreessen Horowitz nears $7 billion fundraise (Axios)
How the Bromance Between Elon Musk and Sam Altman Turned Toxic (WSJ)
Accenture to acquire Udacity to build a learning platform focused on AI (TechCrunch)
Google is starting to squash more spam and AI in search results (The Verge)
The US Government is moving closer to force Bytedance to either divest ownership in Tik Tok or banning it altogether (Nicholas Thompson)
Funding Rounds
Alumis, taking aim at Bristol Myers, pulls in $259M for TYK2 drug work (Bio Pharma Dive)
Monzo, the UK challenger bank with 9 million customers, raises $430 million (TechCrunch)
Axonius, a specialist in cyber asset management, secures $200M at a flat $2.6B valuation (TechCrunch)
Mews, the hotel SaaS startup, books $110M at a $1.2B valuation (TechCrunch)