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Google Businesses

Google To Make Shopping Listings Free (axios.com) 8

Google won't charge businesses to sell goods in its Shopping section, beginning later this month in the U.S. and globally over the course of the year, the company said on Tuesday. From a report: Google is trying to eliminate fees for its services to ease the burden on small businesses and publishers, two categories that rely heavily on its services and are hurting badly amid the coronavirus' effect on the economy. "Beginning next week, search results on the Google Shopping tab will consist primarily of free product listings, helping merchants better connect with consumers, regardless of whether they advertise on Google," Google commerce president Bill Ready said in a blog post. This isn't totally altruistic. Google makes most of its advertising dollars from people engaging with media-company content on its platform or small businesses selling goods, so it makes financial sense for it to try to help out those industries in any way it can.
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Google To Make Shopping Listings Free

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  • Not being altruistic is an understatement considering Google got a 2.8 billion euro fine for preferencing its shopping service in search results while charging for its listings.

    • It's not even remotely altruistic if you correct the Google version:

      Google is trying to eliminate fees for its services to ease the burden on small businesses and publishers

      to what it really is:

      Google is trying to eliminate fees for its services to try and kill the business models of eBay, Aliexpress, and similar markets

      • Does anyone actually use Google shopping? It's absolute trash in my experience; I'd assume people would stick with browser addons. I keep expecting them to kill it due to unpopularity.

  • Bill Ready and his assistant Sign Here?

  • And wasn't there another iteration of domains during early Google involving a q?
  • As many gripes as I have with eBay, I don't want Google controlling everything.

    This is clearly anti-competitive behavior, and it needs to stop.

  • What I find interesting is that Google Shopping used to have free listings. I'm a little surprised that the market for providing listings wasn't profitable, or Google must have been charging to much, since I would have suspected that their biggest competitor, Amazon, has a larger take.

    It's also possible that merchants simply found that paying click-throughs on listings didn't translate into profitable sales. I'm not a merchant, but it seems Amazon at least seems to charge only when sales are made.

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