Last week I looked at paid search startup Neeva and the implications it might have for news. In the interview with CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy we touched on the search engine’s use of copyrighted content within the interface and the possibility Neeva would share some of its revenue with content creators.
Now Neeva has formally announced it will be allotting 20% of revenue to content partners. This is a significant future commitment. At the moment the company is still in testing, has not switched on subscriptions and makes no money.
On reading the press release I didn’t understand how the whole thing would work. I asked for clarification and received this response:
“We are still in the early stages. The program will be further developed and scaled as we grow and start our subscription service. We will divide up the 20% gross revenue share to publisher partners based on a combination of impressions and unique value.”