US information technology giant Google has launched its News Showcase service in Japan, enabling users to view news content provided by more than 40 publishers in the country.

Unlike news content that appears through Google searches, the News Showcase portal shows content selected by the news outlets and Google pays fees to them. Users will, case by case, be allowed to view paid articles for free.

News organizations have demanded that Google pay fees for the use of their content as they have struggled with declining advertisement revenues, while Google has generated massive ad revenues.

Google has not disclosed how much it pays to each of the publishers.

But the tech giant said last year that it planned to pay 1 billion dollars to its media partners over the next three years.

Besides Japanese media firms, more than 1,000 news outlets in at least 12 countries, including Britain, France, Germany, Brazil, and India, have joined the Google project.