Is Mozilla the one to suffer the consequences of Google's antitrust defeat?
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United States District Judge Amit Mehta found Google guilty of building a monopolistic position in web search. The Mountain View corporation spent billions of dollars becoming the...

Mozilla has a close relationship with Google, as most of Firefox’s revenue comes from the agreement keeping Google as the browser’s default search engine. However, the search giant is now officially a monopoly, and a future court decision could have an unprecedented impact on Mozilla’s ability to keep things “business as usual.”

United States District Judge Amit Mehta found Google guilty of building a monopolistic position in web search. The Mountain View corporation spent billions of dollars becoming the leading search provider for computing platforms and web browsers on PC and mobile devices.

Most of the $21 billion spent went to Apple in exchange for setting Google as the default search engine on iPhone, iPad, and Mac systems. The judge will now need to decide on a penalty for the company’s actions, including the potential of forcing Google to stop payments to its search “partners completely,” which could have dire consequences for smaller companies like Mozilla.

Its most recent financials show Mozilla gets $510 million out of its $593 million in total revenue from its Google partnership. This precarious financial position is a side effect of its deal with Alphabet, which made Google the search engine default for newer Firefox installations.

The open-source web browser has experienced a steady market share decline over the past few years. Meanwhile, Mozilla management was paid millions to develop a new “vision” of a theoretical future with AI chatbots. Mozilla Corporation, the wholly owned subsidiary of Mozilla Foundation managing Firefox development, could find itself in a severe struggle for revenue if Google’s money suddenly dried up.

  • TheJack@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10416·
    3 months ago

    I have written this elsewhere many times and I know it’s extremely unpopular with FOSS crowd but truth needs to be told in here once again:

    Everyday I use Debian, Ubuntu and Windows 10/11/Servers.

    I’m an “IT guy” and have installed Firefox on literally hundreds of computers over a decade. I also install and setup extensions like uBlock Origin (with few comprehensive ad & malware blocking lists) , Dark Reader, Auto Delete Cookies, Crypto blocking and many more… but I have given up on Firefox 2016 onwards.

    You could give Mozilla 10 billion per year just to develop Firefox but Mozilla can and will decide that they wanna spend only 1 or 10 percent of that money on actual Firefox development.

    They will spend most of their money on anything but Firefox.

    I mean I love world-peace, and cancer and aids free world too but with the money Mozilla get in a year, none of that gonna happen.

    Mozilla couldn’t stop Russia attack on Ukraine; neither were able to solve Israel Palestinian conflict nor hunger and migration from African countries to Europe…

    Then what are they spending money on?

    What they could have done successfully is to spend all the money they made from Firefox towards Firefox development alone. But this is the thing Mozilla do not want to do and are open about it.

    Now I don’t want Mozilla to stop developing Firefox either but because Firefox needs money from Google, Google must be allowed their monopoly on search… is utterly insane thinking.

    If Mozilla cannot survive without Google monopoly, so be it.

    I would say some open source/ Linux foundations/ Linux distros needs to fork Firefox and let Mozilla die peacefully.

    • MCasq_qsaCJ_234@lemmy.zipEnglish
      144·
      3 months ago

      There is already the Ladybird project, which is a fork of the SerenityOS browser. We can say that it is a spiritual successor, although its license is more permissive than the Firefox browser.

      • mke@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        3 months ago

        Once again, note that if you’re the kind of user who shuns Brave because the CEO says stupid stuff every once in a while, you’ll probably not look fondly upon Ladybird’s project lead and main developer being scared of pronouns.

        See the issue on github.

        If you don’t care about that, it’s an interesting project. Can’t say I approve, though.

        Posting this to inform people and let each one decide what to do on their own. Don’t harass anyone, please.

      • TheJack@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Semi-TLDR: Improvements under Mozilla? None.

        They do not even want to develop a better (than Chrome) browser… they wanna “build a better Internet”.

        Mozilla Foundation is making US$ 300-400 millions for many, many years (US$ 593 in 2021-22). If they could not develop a better Firefox all these years, it’s not happening __ with or without Google money __ ever.

        When Mozilla /Firefox developers don’t even care/do not listen to feedback for simple things like ability to differentiate between active and inactive tab colors (why everyone that uses Firefox must play around with css to make Firefox usable?), expect them to develop something better or comparable to Chromium based browser is out of question.

        Longer, rant version:

        According to the Mozilla Foundation’s 2021–2022 financial statement, which is the most recent one published, $510 million out of its $593 million in revenue came courtesy of Google’s search payments.

        Source: https://fortune.com/2024/08/05/mozilla-firefox-biggest-potential-loser-google-antitrust-search-ruling/

        The fundamental issues as I see are:

        Complete lack of vision. Utterly worthless CEOs. Spending money on everything else but development of Firefox.

        Especially when Firefox made them US$ 510 million in 2021-22.

        Instead of spending millions on worthless CEOs, why not spend millions on developers so people would use Firefox on their own, instead IT guys like me forcing friends & family to use it.

        I try to find annual cost of developing & maintaining Linux kernel but could only find articles and PDFs from 2008/2017 mentioning total worth etc but not actual annual cost.

        Just as a thought experiment, imagine every Firefox (desktop, mobile etc) stops working all of a sudden… IMO, the world and internet will not come to a full stop.

        Now imagine what would happen if every computer, server, router, switch, phone, tablet, stops working completely at once, that runs on Linux kernel.

        So if Linux kernel can be developed for $510 million (assuming its below this mark), why can’t Firefox be?

        I’m trying to figure out why US$ 510 million is not able to develop something better or comparable to Chromium based browsers.

        Then there are issues related to lack of vision and no importance/urgency towards finishing a product.

        Why only few extensions were allowed on Firefox mobile for many years without any explanations. Even developers of major extensions were not able to figure out the criteria to make their addon available on Firefox mobile.

        What was the rationale behind it… Driving people away who were using Firefox mobile? If the product was not ready, do not fucking release it.

        You need highly talented and additional developers to release product sooner… hire more, pay more. You got $510 mil just from Firefox.

        I do not see any future for Firefox under Mozilla.

        Only if some real big names (like Linux foundation etc) from FOSS world hard fork the Firefox, it might have a future.

        I think, with real big name sponsors (pro-open source companies), search revenue will not be an issue.

        IMO, the new organization (of course with big sponsors) of new fork must have one, single mission/goal… develop a great browser. New org must not have a mission statement written by MBAs:

        “We’re building a better Internet”

        Source: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/mission/

        Something people will use it on their own for its merit.