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
    2·
    1 month 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.