Two years ago, Microsoft president Brad Smith told a US congressional hearing that tech companies like his own had not been sufficiently paying media companies for the news content that helps fuel search engines like Bing and Google. "What we're talking about here is far bigger than us," he said, testifying alongside news executives. "Let's hope that, if a century from now people are not using iPhones or laptops or anything that we have today, journalism itself is still alive and well. Because our democracy depends on it." Smith said tech companies should do more and that Microsoft was committed to continuing "healthy revenue-sharing" with news publishers, including licensing articles for Microsoft news apps.