Google, TikTok, and Meta could be taxed by Australia to fund its newsrooms

The business landscape continues to evolve rapidly, and staying competitive requires both awareness and the right operational infrastructure. This article explores Google, TikTok, and Meta could be taxed by Australia to fund its newsrooms and what it means for solo operators, small teams, and growing businesses in 2025.

It’s the country’s second attempt at making platforms pay for the Australian news that their users view. Australia has proposed taxing digital giants Meta, Google and TikTok on a part of their revenue to pay for news reporters.The government released draft legislation Tuesday it intends to introduce to Parliament by July 2 that would create a financial incentive for the social media companies to strike deals with news organizations to pay for journalism.The platforms’ criticisms included that the proposal was a “digital services tax” that misunderstood the evolving advertising industry and would fail to deliver a sustainable news sector.Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said a monetary value needed to be attached to journalists’ work.“It shouldn’t just be able to be taken by a large multinational corporation and used to generate profits for that organisation with no compensation appropriate for the people who produce that creative content,” Albanese told reporters.“We think that investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy,” he added.It’s Australia’s second legislative attempt to make the platforms pay for the Australian news text and images that their users view.Digital platforms had been pressured to strike deals with Australian news publishers to pay for journalism by legislation passed in 2021 that created the country’s News Media Bargaining Code.The platforms chose to reach commercial deals with news creators rather than be forced into arbitration and have a judge set the price.But they have since avoided renewing those deals by removing news from their services.The proposed News Bargaining Incentive would charge major platforms that choose not to strike commercial deals with news publishers a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue.The platforms would be given offsets and their overall costs would be lowered if they agree to pay publishers for journalism, the government said.The government expects the incentive would raise between 200 to 250 million Australian dollars ($144 million-$179 million) a year. That was about as much as the platforms paid news outlets when the News Media Bargaining Code was working at its peak.The government would distribute that income among news organizations based on how many journalists each organization employed, Communication Minister Anika Wells said.The tax would apply to Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, Google, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., and TikTok, which is majority-owned by U.S.-backed investors.Opposing the proposed legislation, Meta said news organizations “voluntarily post content on our platforms because they receive value from doing so.”“The idea that we take their news content is simply wrong. This proposed legislation, which would apply to platforms regardless of whether news content even appears on our services, is nothing more than a digital services tax,” Meta said in a statement.“A government-mandated transfer of wealth from one industry to another, with no connection to the value exchanged, will not deliver a sustainable or innovative news sector. Instead, it will create a news industry dependent on a government-administered subsidy scheme,” Meta added.Google said “we reject the need for this tax.”“It ignores the fact that Google already has commercial agreements with the news industry, misunderstands how the ad market changed and mandates payments from some companies while arbitrarily excluding platforms like Microsoft, Snapchat and OpenAI — despite the major shift in how people consume news,” a Google statement said.TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.All the targeted platforms are American. U.S. critics have argued that Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code had disproportionately cost American corporations.Albanese was not concerned by potential pushback from the United States.“We’re a sovereign nation and my government will make decisions based upon the Australian national interest,” Albanese said.

Why This Matters for Small Business Operators

Business owners managing operations with fragmented tools — separate CRM, invoicing, HR, and analytics platforms — are increasingly disadvantaged. The operational overhead of switching between dashboards, reconciling data, and maintaining multiple subscriptions compounds quickly. Teams now spend an average of 15+ hours per week on tool management that adds zero revenue.

The businesses growing fastest in 2025 are those that have consolidated their operational stack onto a single modular platform. This isn't just about cost savings — it's about decision speed. When your CRM shares data with your invoicing module, which connects to payroll and HR, every business decision is faster and more informed.

The Fragmentation Problem

Most SMBs today use 6-10 separate software tools to run their operations. Each tool has its own pricing model, login, data format, and API quirks. The result is a web of integrations that breaks regularly, data that never fully syncs, and a finance team that spends more time reconciling spreadsheets than analysing trends.

• Average SMB spends $1,200–$3,600/year on overlapping software subscriptions
• 43% of small business owners report data inconsistency across their tools as a top operational challenge
• Integration maintenance consumes an estimated 20% of developer time at companies with custom stacks

What an Integrated Business OS Changes

Platforms like Mewayz approach this differently. Rather than offering one monolithic tool, a modular business OS provides 208 independently deployable business modules that share a single database and unified permissions model. You activate what you need — CRM, invoicing, booking, payroll, link-in-bio, fleet management — and they work together natively from day one.

"The best business software isn't the most feature-rich — it's the one where all your data lives in one place and your team actually uses it every day."

This architecture means a freelancer can start with link-in-bio and invoicing for free, and a growing team can activate HR, payroll, and analytics without migrating to a new system or re-training staff.

Practical Steps to Consolidate Your Stack

1. Audit your current tools: List every subscription, its monthly cost, and the specific problem it solves.
2. Identify redundancy: Most teams have 2-3 tools solving overlapping problems — these are your first consolidation targets.
3. Prioritise integration points: Focus on tools that need to share data most frequently — CRM ↔ invoicing ↔ payments is the most common pain point.
4. Start with a free tier: Platforms that offer a genuine free tier let you test integration without commitment. Mewayz's free tier includes CRM, invoicing, and link-in-bio with no time limit.
5. Migrate incrementally: Move one module at a time, validate the data, then proceed to the next.

The White-Label Opportunity for Agencies

For digital agencies and platform businesses, there's a compelling additional angle: offering clients a fully branded operational platform rather than recommending a patchwork of third-party tools. A white-label business OS creates a recurring revenue stream and dramatically increases client retention — agencies that offer software retain clients 3× longer than those that only provide services.

Looking Ahead

The businesses that consolidate onto unified, modular platforms over the next 12-24 months will have a structural cost and speed advantage over those still running fragmented tool stacks. The technology exists, pricing has democratised, and migration paths are clearer than ever.

If you're evaluating your options, Mewayz offers a free forever tier with no credit card required — the lowest-friction way to experience what a unified business OS feels like in practice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why This Matters for Small Business Operators

Business owners managing operations with fragmented tools — separate CRM, invoicing, HR, and analytics platforms — are increasingly disadvantaged. The operational overhead of switching between dashboards, reconciling data, and maintaining multiple subscriptions compounds quickly. Teams now spend an average of 15+ hours per week on tool management that adds zero revenue.

The Fragmentation Problem

Most SMBs today use 6-10 separate software tools to run their operations. Each tool has its own pricing model, login, data format, and API quirks. The result is a web of integrations that breaks regularly, data that never fully syncs, and a finance team that spends more time reconciling spreadsheets than analysing trends.

What an Integrated Business OS Changes

Platforms like Mewayz approach this differently. Rather than offering one monolithic tool, a modular business OS provides 208 independently deployable business modules that share a single database and unified permissions model. You activate what you need — CRM, invoicing, booking, payroll, link-in-bio, fleet management — and they work together natively from day one.

Practical Steps to Consolidate Your Stack Audit your current tools: List every subscription, its monthly cost, and the specific problem it solves. Identify redundancy: Most teams have 2-3 tools solving overlapping problems — these are your first consolidation targets. Prioritise integration points: Focus on tools that need to share data most frequently — CRM ↔ invoicing ↔ payments is the most common pain point. Start with a free tier: Platforms that offer a genuine free tier let you test integration without commitment. Mewayz's free tier includes CRM, invoicing, and link-in-bio with no time limit. Migrate incrementally: Move one module at a time, validate the data, then proceed to the next. The White-Label Opportunity for Agencies

For digital agencies and platform businesses, there's a compelling additional angle: offering clients a fully branded operational platform rather than recommending a patchwork of third-party tools. A white-label business OS creates a recurring revenue stream and dramatically increases client retention — agencies that offer software retain clients 3× longer than those that only provide services.

Looking Ahead

The businesses that consolidate onto unified, modular platforms over the next 12-24 months will have a structural cost and speed advantage over those still running fragmented tool stacks. The technology exists, pricing has democratised, and migration paths are clearer than ever.