Nguy cơ “Google Zero”: báo chí toàn cầu chạy đua thoát phụ thuộc Google khi AI thay đổi tìm kiếm

• Các nhà xuất bản quốc tế lo ngại “Google Zero” – sự sụt giảm mạnh lưu lượng truy cập khi Google triển khai AI Overviews và AI Mode, cung cấp câu trả lời trực tiếp thay vì buộc người dùng nhấp vào nguồn.

• Khảo sát của Enders và Hiệp hội Nhà xuất bản Anh cho thấy khoảng 50% đơn vị báo chí mất lưu lượng tìm kiếm trong năm qua; 80% người dùng dựa vào kết quả “zero-click” ít nhất 40% số lần tìm kiếm.

• Immediate Media (Radio Times, Good Food) dự báo lượng truy cập từ Google sẽ giảm “đáng kể” trong vài năm tới. CEO Sean Cornwell cho biết cần đa dạng hóa doanh thu, xây dựng đăng ký trực tiếp và phát triển phóng viên thành thương hiệu cá nhân.

• People Inc (tên mới của Dotdash Meredith) coi “Google Zero” là chiến lược định hướng. CEO Neil Vogel cho biết tỷ lệ truy cập từ Google đã giảm từ 65% xuống gần 30% trong 5 năm qua. Công ty đang mở rộng nguồn thu từ đăng ký, hội nghị, mạng xã hội, Apple News và bản tin điện tử.

• PPA (UK) ghi nhận một nhà xuất bản ô tô mất 25% lưu lượng cho bài viết đứng hạng 1 dù hiển thị tăng 7%, cho thấy AI Overviews đang “ăn” lượt click.

• Reach (chủ sở hữu Mirror, Express) và Newsquest cho biết cần giảm phụ thuộc Google, tập trung xây dựng độc giả trực tiếp và nhấn mạnh ưu thế nội dung tin tức “hyperlocal” khó bị AI thay thế.

• Google phản biện: lượng click tổng thể vẫn ổn định, chất lượng cao hơn và người dùng ở lại lâu hơn. Tuy nhiên, các nhà xuất bản cho rằng tác động khác nhau theo loại nội dung, “evergreen” dễ bị AI tóm tắt nhất.

• Chiến lược chung: đa dạng hóa nguồn thu, tổ chức sự kiện, tăng sức hút nội dung, đầu tư vào nhân sự như thương hiệu cá nhân, và thúc đẩy mối quan hệ trực tiếp với độc giả thay vì phụ thuộc nền tảng.

📌 AI Overviews và AI Mode của Google khiến nhiều nhà xuất bản lo ngại “Google Zero”, với báo cáo cho thấy 50% mất lưu lượng tìm kiếm và một số nội dung giảm 25% lượt truy cập. Trong bối cảnh click từ Google giảm từ 65% xuống gần 30% trong 5 năm, báo chí đang xoay trục: phát triển đăng ký, sự kiện, mạng xã hội và nội dung hấp dẫn để duy trì độc giả trực tiếp.

https://www.ft.com/content/f7a0eb8e-ff5b-42ae-b882-4815dbb38653

Publishers race to counter ‘Google Zero’ threat as AI changes search engines
Media groups explore new ways of reaching readers and making money amid arrival of AI tools that affect clicks

© FT montage/Getty Images

Daniel Thomas

Publishers are racing to find ways to counter the threat of “Google Zero” — the sharp fall in web traffic that many media executives worry about following the launch of AI-based tools on the US platform.
In late July the latest iteration of Google’s AI tools was rolled out in the UK having already reached the US, leading some publishers to warn that an already evident decline in traffic from the search engine risked accelerating.
Google AI mode provides detailed answers to even nuanced search queries at the top of results, and builds on the existing AI Overviews that summarise results without the need to click through to source material.
“Like everyone, we have definitely felt the impact of AI Overviews. There is only one direction of travel; not only are AIs getting better, but they’re getting better in an exponential fashion,” said Sean Cornwell, chief executive of Immediate Media, which owns the Radio Times and Good Food brands in the UK. 
“It’s only heading in one direction, and we’ve got to assume that the drop-offs are going to be pretty stark at some point in the next few years.”
According to a May report by Enders and the Professional Publishers Association, media groups were “losing visibility and value as their content is used but not rewarded”, with about half reporting a search traffic decline over the past year.
Al Overviews were cannibalising website visits, Enders said, with four in five consumers relying on “zero-click search results” in at least 40 per cent of their searches.
The Google Chrome website seen on a smartphone
Recent studies by Pew Research Center and Authoritas showed that Google users were less likely to click on links when an AI summary appeared in the results © Gabby Jones/Bloomberg
Other recent studies by Pew Research Center and Authoritas showed that Google users were less likely to click on links when an AI summary appeared in the results. Google said that there were “fundamental flaws” in the methodology of the reports.
Digital Content Next, the US media trade organisation, said that its latest member survey showed median year-over-year referral traffic from Google Search to premium publishers down a tenth in May and June compared to a year earlier.
Neil Vogel, chief executive of People Inc, America’s largest digital and print publisher, said “Google Zero” was the group’s “North Star” strategy when thinking about how readers would find and access articles from its dozens of titles in the future.
Vogel was speaking as the publisher said it was rebranding from Dotdash Meredith to People Inc to reflect its largest and best-known title. Its journalism was “by people, for people, we’re not synthesised, and we’re not artificial”, he said.
Google search referrals had already fallen over the past five years from about 65 per cent to near 30 per cent of traffic even before the launch of AI Overviews and AI Mode, Vogel said.
Some publishers that have depended on readers finding their articles using Google have warned that “click-throughs” from search traffic were dropping in the UK too after the introduction of AI Overviews, said Sajeeda Merali, chief executive of the Professional Publishers Association.
AI Mode and Overviews can cover some of what lifestyle publishers have relied on for traffic, according to Merali, such as recommendations and help with topics such as gardening. One automotive publisher investing in detailed car benchmarking content reported a 25 per cent drop in traffic to articles ranking first in organic search, according to the PPA, despite a 7 per cent increase in search visibility.
“Given the tool is offering fewer links, I think that can only be a bad thing [for publishers]. AI Mode is just an extension of the problem,” she said. 
Digital Content Next’s Jason Kint said that for publishers, “it means fewer readers, ad impressions, and subscription conversions”. 
Google says otherwise. Executives from the US group held a meeting with publishers in late July, according to people who attended the session, where it argued that clicks from search result pages with AI Overviews are of a “higher quality” — with users more likely to spend more time on the sites.
In a blog post this month, Google said that total organic click volume from Google Search to websites had been relatively stable year-over-year, while average click quality has increased.
“While overall traffic to sites is relatively stable, the web is vast, and user trends are shifting traffic to different sites, resulting in decreased traffic to some sites and increased traffic to others,” said Liz Reid, head of Google Search.
Google said in a statement to the FT: “We consistently direct billions of clicks to websites daily and have not observed significant drops in aggregate web traffic as is being suggested.”
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet chief executive
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive. Whatever the extent of the impact of Overviews and now AI Mode, publishers are preparing for a future where Google is less important to their sites © Damian Lemanski/Bloomberg
Whatever the extent of the impact of Overviews and now AI Mode, publishers are preparing for a future where Google is less crucial to their sites.
Piers North, chief executive of Reach, the UK group that owns newspapers including the Mirror and Express, said “clearly change is under way” for the future of search traffic. “We’re mindful of the need to prepare for what some people are calling Google Zero or certainly a future that is different from the search-based ecosystem that’s driven online for the past 25 years or so.”
He said the goal was to have a “diverse ecosystem of referrers, build up our direct traffickers, direct audiences . . . and utilise the strength of a diverse audience network with the aim of reducing dependency on any one individual source”. 
Some publishers are also seeking new ways to drive revenues such as through live events and conferences.
Immediate Media’s Cornwell said revenue diversification was key to countering the decline in search traffic, by building a direct relationship with readers through digital subscriptions that have been rolled out across its food, Radio Times, history and gardening content.
Cornwell is also developing writers within the titles as trusted “brands” in their own right, turning the group more into a “talent factory”.
“For the 35 and under, so Gen Z and millennial, it’s very obvious that they don’t really have much loyalty or follow brands. Who they follow is individual talent,” he said.
Cornwell also pointed out that the impact of AI search tools appeared different depending on the type of content and title, with trusted, “category-leading” brands having an advantage.
Further, certain categories — such as “newsy” Radio Times content — did not seem to show up in Overviews, he added.
“Evergreen content, like a guide to how to boil an egg, or plant roses, or what happened to Henry the Eighth . . . that’s very easy for an AI Overview to answer.”
Henry Faure Walker, chief executive of Newsquest, the UK local news publisher, said that news media at least was less affected given the difficulty in reproducing “hyperlocal” reporting rather than “evergreen” topics such as recommendations.
The group was still nervous about the future as AI tools improve. “The key is to drive direct traffic,” he said. 
People Inc’s Vogel said the company was finding other ways to make money from readers, from subscriptions, social media referrals and newsletters, to syndication and the use of Apple News as a platform. “We have made it up with 1,000 different things — in terms of audience we are fine.”
Vogel said that the group needed to produce material that is “super compelling to people so they want to come back — the world doesn’t need any more mediocre content”.
He added: “I really like our chances. I like us in a post-Google world . . . we got to just look back to the pre-Google world. How are media brands built? You had to connect directly with people . . . [but] if, as a publisher, you’re just figuring this out, you’re dead. You’re cooked.”