Google adds up its contributions to Korea

Google laid out the hard and soft contributions it has made to Korea on Wednesday, an apparent defense against the Korean government's recent crackdown on big tech companies and what it considers a hostile regulatory framework.

Logo of an online event held by Google on Wednesday [GOOGLE]

Google laid out the hard and soft contributions it has made to Korea on Wednesday, an apparent defense against the Korean government’s recent crackdown on big tech companies and what it considers a hostile regulatory framework.

The U.S. tech giant contributed 1.597 trillion won ($1.4 billion) to Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) last year, according to a report conducted by UK research firm Oxford Economics, which was cited by Google on Wednesday.

The figure was calculated by adding up advertising revenues given to media companies and individual creators of YouTube videos, salaries of employees of companies tied with YouTube’s ecosystem and sales of products sold by the YouTube streamers.

It was also credited with creating 86,003 jobs based on publicly available data and surveys of 4,000 Korean users and 550 creators on the video platform.

The company highlighted its commitment to the Korean market during an online event on Wednesday. “Google is committed for the long term,” said Scott Beaumont, Google’s President for Asia Pacific region. “We are ready to invest in the platforms, the partnerships and the progress needed to unlock Korea’s extraordinary potential. We’re ready to play our part to ensure Korea’s long tradition of innovation continues, for the benefit of Koreans, the Asia-Pacific region, and the world,” he said.

The amicable rhetoric came after the company got hammered by Korean authorities.

Korea's antitrust agency fined Google 207.4 billion won on Tuesday for using the success of its mobile operating system (OS) to limit competition.

An "Anti-Google law" that bans app market operators like Google from forcing app developers to use their in-app billing systems went into effect Tuesday.

Google said that it will come up with alternative ways to maintain its system for charging commissions. “We intend to comply with the Korean law, and we’ll continue to examine options that allow us to maintain the service fees that keep Android free and sustain our investments in the ecosystem,” Google said in a statement.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]