HOPING TO put its strained relationship with French authorities behind it, Google has begun a charm offensive here by announcing the creation of a “European cultural institute” in Paris and major investment in education.
The internet giant is regarded with suspicion by some in the French elite over cultural and intellectual property concerns, with its book digitisation and Street View projects having caused clashes with politicians and regulators in recent years. It has also been suggested that the company should pay tax on advertising revenue generated in France here rather than in Ireland, where its European headquarters is located.
After meeting President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace, Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt said it planned to open a “European cultural institute” and a new engineering centre in Paris. He said the company hoped to recruit dozens of young graduates for the centre and invest “millions of dollars” in the cultural body in its first year, while funding would also be made available to start-ups and small technology companies.
“France is one of the most important centres of culture, business and technology in the world,” Google said in a statement. “We’re very enthusiastic about the idea of increasing our investments and thereby allowing for the creation of new partnerships and opportunities here in France.” The firm controls about 80 per cent of France’s online search market but said the latest investment was “more than a business decision. We are very serious about our investments in culture in the long term”. Google did not specify the size of its planned funding.
Welcoming the company’s plans, Mr Sarkozy said he had underlined to Mr Schmidt “the importance of building a balanced relationship and a constructive dialogue between Google and French and European cultural industries, whose economic models as well as their practices have been dramatically affected by new technologies”.
Relations between the French and Google have been strained in recent years. Addressing concerns last December about Google’s aim of scanning out-of-copyright titles and providing them in searchable form online, Mr Sarkozy said France would increase funding for its own digitisation project, known as Gallica, with the injection of €750 million. “We won’t let ourselves be stripped of our heritage for the benefit of a big company, no matter how friendly, big or American it is,” he said at the time.
“We are not going to be stripped of what generations and generations have produced in the French language, just because we weren’t capable of funding our own digitisation project.”