Over the last decade, firefox's market share has dropped from ~25% to less than 10% (numbers vary depending on where you look). At the same time, the browser only got better in my opinion. What is going on?
Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
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Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#2One of the reasons: Massive advertising by Google to convince people to "try chrome". It is only relatively recently that visiting a google property was not met with: "Google X is best used in Chrome -- install Chrome now." (with "install chrome" being a link to the installer.
No such massive advertising campaign ever existed to try to convince folks to "install Firefox".
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#3The market has likely grown by a large amount in that time, and a big chunk of that growth will be on platforms that either ban, or strongly tilt the user's choice of browser.
That and the competitors being rich corporations that are happy to pay to convert low-information users probably accounts for most of it.
I've not looked recently but looking at actual user numbers has long told a different story, which no great decline except in relative terms when compared with rivals.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#4I am still using Firefox as my main browser, but some sites are broken with Firefox and working fine with Chrome. So unless you are particularly motivated to stay on a given platform, practically it does not really makes sense as a user to stay committed.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#5Actually, why does Chrome/ium has such a high market share even amongst tech savvy people? I don't see the appeal.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#6I am still using Firefox as my main browser, but some sites are broken with Firefox and working fine with Chrome. So unless you are particularly motivated to stay on a given platform, practically it does not really makes sense as a user to stay committed.
Interesting, I have not come across any broken websites in a while. Or well, there was a booking website recently where I switched to Chrome to have my booking go through. But it would need to be a lot of those instances before I would even consider switching to Chrome. You have any (anecdotal) stats on how many websites are broken? What kind of sites are those?
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#7Because it's not as good as it used to be. Due poor management I suppose.
Chrome is far for ideal too, but at least it works for user and developer without much pain.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#8I am still using Firefox as my main browser, but some sites are broken with Firefox and working fine with Chrome. So unless you are particularly motivated to stay on a given platform, practically it does not really makes sense as a user to stay committed.
I use Firefox as my daily driver and have not encountered any sites that work in Chrome but not Firefox.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#9I am still using Firefox as my main browser, but some sites are broken with Firefox and working fine with Chrome. So unless you are particularly motivated to stay on a given platform, practically it does not really makes sense as a user to stay committed.
Interesting, I have not come across any broken websites in a while. Or well, there was a booking website recently where I switched to Chrome to have my booking go through. But it would need to be a lot of those instances before I would even consider switching to Chrome. You have any (anecdotal) stats on how many websites are broken? What kind of sites are those?
Same, it's mostly Google sites that work better with Chrome, like the GCP console.
Re: Ask HN: Why does Firefox have such a low market share anyways?
#10Network effect I'd say.
If tomorrow opera, brave, edge switched to Firefox, people won't notice but Firefox share would rise dramatically.
Extensions is another issue.
Today, any tom dick and harry who want to create a browser extension only build for chrome "why not". Firefox comes from complaining users who don't want to switch otherwise they don't bother.
Its the same chicken or egg thing. Low market share of Firefox means less users means less customers of extensions means devs will spend less time to build for Firefox and so on.
Firefox extensions often feel like someone actually spent some time and thought into building it, there isn't much crap but chrome store is the dirt bag free for all