Microsoft is moving to the light side of the force.
It’s building a content marketplace where publishers and creators can sell their work directly to AI chatbots.
Auction or fixed price, still unclear.
Why this is a huge deal:
Publishers are getting crushed.
Search traffic is collapsing after “Google Zero”, or the so-called "death of clicks".
Less traffic means less ad revenue.
Meanwhile, AI chatbots keep using their content for free…
without even sending traffic back 😅.
This model is clearly not sustainable.
Sure, OpenAI has begun striking content licensing deals.
For example with the Financial Times.
But these are slow, maybe annual negotiations, while AI usage grows exponentially in the meantime.
At this point, publishers need a Big Tech giant to finally take their side.
If one moves, the rest will follow.
Problem is,
Microsoft’s marketplace would only feed CoPilot. 😐
And CoPilot is minuscule compared to the main players.
Still, it’s a start.
And Microsoft’s stake in OpenAI could make the ripple bigger.
Will it work?
Hard to tell.
But one thing is certain:
How this shift will evolve will either save the open web… or kill it.
