Internet search engine Google has insisted it was not stealing business from the print media even if it has become an increasingly important source of news on the Web.

Internet search engine Google insisted on Friday it was not stealing business from the print media even if it has become an increasingly important source of news on the Web.

"We are not making money on the back of newspapers," Stefan Tweraser, head of Google Germany, told a media industry conference in Vienna.

The company pays around six billion US dollars (4.35 billion euros) for news services worldwide and draws content from some 50,000 publishing companies around the world, Tweraser said at the annual gathering of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).

"Google's real business model is partnerships... Google News lives because we have 50,000 partners with whom we share our revenues."

Dismissing criticism that Google, as an aggregator of Internet content, held a de facto monopoly over news on the Web, Tweraser pointed to fellow search engines Yahoo! and Bing, as well as local competitors in Russia and China.

"So there are a lot of alternatives to Google," he said.

Google reported on Thursday a big jump in profits in the three months to September as its budding online social network blossomed and Android smartphones gained traction.

Net profit rose to $2.73 billion on the wings of online advertising revenue that soared to $9.72 billion in the third quarter, which ended September 30.

(c) 2011 AFP