Google Pulls YouTube From Amazon Devices, Saying It Isn't Playing Fair
December 05 2017 - 7:01PM
Dow Jones News
By Jack Nicas
Google said it is pulling YouTube from some Amazon.com Inc.
devices in retaliation for Amazon refusing to sell many Google
products, escalating a battle between two tech titans as their
businesses increasingly overlap.
Google said Tuesday it had cut access to YouTube on Amazon's
smart speakers with screens, called the Echo Show, and that it
plans to block YouTube on Amazon's Fire TV media-streaming device
on Jan. 1.
Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., said Amazon's retail website
doesn't sell competing products like the Google Home smart speaker
or Google's Chromecast streaming device. Google also claimed that
Amazon's Prime Video lineup of shows and movies isn't available via
the Chromecast. It added that Amazon has stopped selling some
products from Nest, a connected-device maker that is Google's
sister firm under Alphabet. Amazon in October launched a
home-security system that competes with Nest.
"Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting
YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV," a Google spokeswoman said
Tuesday.
An Amazon spokeswoman said, "Google is setting a disappointing
precedent by selectively blocking customer access to an open
website."
Both companies said they hope to resolve the issue quickly.
The rare public spat between two of the world's most powerful
companies highlights increasing tensions as they spread their
ambitions to new products and industries. While Google started in
online search and Amazon in retail, each now has competing hardware
and content businesses that they are betting will expand their
dominance.
Google already pulled YouTube off Amazon's Echo Show device in
September because it said Amazon's implementation of YouTube
violated its policies by barring users from logging in or
commenting.
Last month, a few days before the Black Friday shopping bonanza,
Amazon said YouTube was working on the Echo Show again. A person
familiar with Google's thinking said Amazon had worked around its
move to block access to its YouTube voice-controlled app by sending
users to YouTube's website, an approach that also violates
YouTube's policies.
Amazon's Prime Video service, which offers access to movies and
TV shows over the internet, is blocked on Google's Chromecast
streaming device, which sends content from phones and laptops onto
TVs. Now Google will be blocking access to YouTube on Amazon's Fire
TV streaming device.
Google has tried to negotiate with Amazon to get its Chromecast
and Google Home products on Amazon's retail site, but Amazon has
told Google bluntly it won't sell them, according to the person
familiar with Google's thinking. On Tuesday, asking Amazon's Alexa
virtual assistant to add a Google Chromecast to a user's shopping
cart caused the assistant to add Amazon's competing Fire TV Stick
to the cart. Amazon also doesn't sell Apple Inc.'s Apple TV
streaming device.
A person familiar with Amazon's thinking said retailers
frequently decide against carrying certain products, but it is rare
for any company to block access to a public website.
The person familiar with Google's thinking said Amazon also
built an unauthorized way to access YouTube via its Fire TV
device.
The Amazon spokeswoman said the Echo Show and Fire TV display
standard web views of YouTube.com.
Patrick Moorhead, head of tech-research firm Moor Insights &
Strategy, said Google appears to be using access to YouTube as
leverage in its negotiations with Amazon -- and the losers are
customers. "This is classic tech-giant sparring," he said. "For
consumers, it's not good."
Still, the companies likely won't stop working together in other
areas. Their relationship is complicated. Amazon is one of Google's
largest customers, buying many high-price ads on its search engine.
Google also still sells other popular products through Amazon,
including its new Pixel smartphones.
--Laura Stevens contributed to this article.
Write to Jack Nicas at jack.nicas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 05, 2017 18:46 ET (23:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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