On February 16, at Humbolt University in Berlin, Germany, Google announced it is launching a new online service for publishers and users of all kinds of digital content. Google One Pass is aimed at providing the widest freedom possible to publishers of the content in terms of setting prices and choosing the subscription types for the content they offer. As far as users are concerned, Google says they will benefit from One Pass as they are granted access to the paid content across different platforms just by entering the same login and password.
This project was developed by Google with all the needs and nuances of the modern-day digital content distribution in mind. That’s why the system allows publishers of all sorts of digital content (magazines, news websites, music and games publishers) to choose from a variety of distribution models available within their industry.
«With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them—offering subscriptions, metered access, «freemium» content or even single articles for sale from their websites or mobile apps. The service also lets publishers give existing print subscribers free (or discounted) access to digital content,» this is how Google describes a variety of options for content distribution publishers are granted by using One Pass.
The service is already available to publishers in the US, UK, Canada, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. Such German publishers as Axel Springer AG, Focus Online (Tomorrow Focus) and Stern.de are said to join Google One Pass.
«Our goal is to provide an open and flexible platform that furthers our commitment to support publishers, journalism and access to quality content», said Google in its official blog.
However, according to www.wired.co.uk, Google One Pass is a real competitor to Apple’s subscription service as it offers enhanced functionality and better revenue share to publishers when compared to Apple’s solution (Google’s offer: 10/90 versus Apple’s 30/70 revenue split).