JAKARTA — Some Indonesian news websites have lost as much as 70 percent of their traffic because of the impact of artificial intelligence, prompting the government to look for new business models to sustain the media industry.
Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria disclosed the figure after meeting with representatives from Google at the Komdigi office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday (July 28), as the ministry gathers industry input to shape copyright governance in the AI era.
Nezar said the biggest worry among website managers right now is falling traffic, with some publishers reporting the steep decline and calling for a business model that fits the shifting digital landscape. He added that the government is closely watching how AI’s growth affects the media industry’s long-term viability, as publishers report shrinking reader traffic that is squeezing revenue and pushing them to look for new ways to operate.
“We’re concerned about several issues that have been under discussion in the media community. We want to hear your views and your plans. We also appreciate Google’s major contribution to keeping Indonesia’s media ecosystem healthy,” Nezar said during the audience with Google.
According to Nezar, the government is collecting input from various parties to ensure that any future regulation strikes a balance between protecting copyright, sustaining the media industry, and giving digital platforms the legal certainty they need to support the growth of the national digital economy. He noted that discussions remain open-ended, with no conclusions reached so far, as the government works toward a solution that is fair, transparent, accountable, and mutually beneficial for all parties involved.
As a next step, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs said it will facilitate further discussions involving the Ministry of Law, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Creative Economy, media companies, digital platforms, and other stakeholders to draft copyright governance rules tailored to the characteristics of each industry sector. Nezar said the ministry would bring all stakeholders together to explore the best options, stressing that each sector’s needs must be examined individually given how different their characteristics are.
During the meeting, Google Asia Pacific’s Managing Director of News, Kate Beddoe, shared the company’s views on several elements under discussion in the draft Copyright Law, including how journalistic works should be defined, how content may be used to develop AI, and what licensing arrangements should look like between digital platforms and media companies. Google also proposed that business-to-business (B2B) cooperation arrangements continue to be accommodated as an alternative that could run alongside the existing Collective Management Organization (LMK) scheme.