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Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
41–50 of 100 posts
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#42I am surprised by this. Mozilla is literally pumping out good open source software and no other company except Google is backing them?
Google isn't backing them with $300M/year because Mozilla is pumping out good open source software. They are doing it to maintain their dominance in search and keep Bing, DDG, Blekko at bay. For example, they have a similar deal with the closed source(till recently) Opera browser. I wish Mozilla would stick to its principles and switch the default to a privacy conscious search engine like DuckDuckGo and give it a muc…
Mozilla cares a lot more about happy users than about your principles. They're not going to switch to dramatically worse search results just to appease the tin hat crowd.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#43I'm so sick of this argument about Mozilla. It is like saying a Principal Engineer at Microsoft relies on Microsof because it provides 90% of his income. Last time Mozilla's contract was up for negotiation, they caused bidding war that increased their value over the previous contract...it wasn't Google's generosity. You are a fool if you think Mozilla is beholden to Google.
>I'm so sick of this argument about Mozilla. It is like saying a Principal Engineer at Microsoft relies on Microsof because it provides 90% of his income.
Well, even if he could shop around for another job, relying on MS like that means a sudden firing combined with an illness/mortage and/or worsening job market conditions can seriously hurt him.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#44I'm so sick of this argument about Mozilla. It is like saying a Principal Engineer at Microsoft relies on Microsof because it provides 90% of his income. Last time Mozilla's contract was up for negotiation, they caused bidding war that increased their value over the previous contract...it wasn't Google's generosity. You are a fool if you think Mozilla is beholden to Google.
I think a better argument is that Mozilla needs to diversify its revenue sources. Chrome is taking away marketshare from Firefox thanks to advertising and paying a lot to be bundled with Java, Flash, Acrobat etc. updates or just being shipped as default by the PC OEMs. It makes sense for Google because then they needn't pay out so much to Mozilla. For many non tech folks where I had replaced IE with Firefox, I now se…
", I now see them using Chrome, and when I asked if they installed it, they usually have no idea how it got on their computer"
I tend to see that too. its pretty evil too. get flash update? chrome bundled at random. navigate google sites? site may not display correctly unless you download this "link to chrome"
and so and so forth. for many users its confusing and they don't know how it happened or how to go back.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except for how Apple doesn't get in excess of 90% of their income from Google.
Why does the percent of income matter? Whether its 1% or 100% Microsoft had zero problem paying to take Google's place as the default search.
The contrast between Mozilla and Apple is that one needs the money and the other one doesn't, and that makes all the difference.
Apple can pick and choose their deals. If Apple decided to give Microsoft the search box for free to spite Google they could do it in a second.
Mozilla is completely dependent on monetizing the search box. I think at $100 million per year, Microsoft was interested in bidding for Mozilla's search box. At $300 million, it was untenable.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a better argument is that Mozilla needs to diversify its revenue sources. Chrome is taking away marketshare from Firefox thanks to advertising and paying a lot to be bundled with Java, Flash, Acrobat etc. updates or just being shipped as default by the PC OEMs. It makes sense for Google because then they needn't pay out so much to Mozilla. For many non tech folks where I had replaced IE with Firefox, I now se…
I wish I could find a "market share over time" chart but I can't. Anyways, IIRC I don't believe Chrome is still taking (much) aware from Firefox. They did for a long time but then flattened. Recently Chrome has dipped a little and Firefox is up: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/11/01/ie11-takes-1-49-mar...
Arstechnica has always nice plots based on netmarketshare.com
Here is a recent article:
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/intern...
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#47Building a browser is pretty complex, but on the other hand, the OpenBSD developers are building an operating system without funding from anyone but their users. I wonder if Mozilla could survive solely on funds from their users or if it's two different worlds.
It's important to remember that the Mozilla Foundation does more than just Firefox -- Thunderbird, Firefox OS, Mozilla Labs, Mozilla Research, etc. all get a slice of the pie.
So while Firefox would likely survive, it'd imagine it would look much more like the post-Netscape, pre-MFL years. No more work on stuff like Rust, Servo, asm.js, things like Thunderbird would atrophy...
That said, I'm not sold on Mozilla needing Google; I'm sure they could swing a deal with Bing. What strange bedfellows that'd make.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are old fashioned, even commercial browsers abandoned that strategy years ago.
Out of curiosity, has anyone tried that strategy with any success post-Opera? They're the last I remember to sell significant numbers of copies of a browser. Depending on how you count, that ended in either 2000 (when they introduced a free ad-supported version, though you could still pay for a registered, ad-free version), or 2005 (when the paid version was phased out entirely).
I guess iCab is the last one still trying (as shareware): http://icab.de/
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#49Mozilla acknowledges this as such in their annual financial reports (and has for a while now):
"Concentrations of Risk: Mozilla entered into a contract with a search engine provider for royalties which expires November 2014. The previous contract term expired in November 2011. Approximately 90% and 85% of royalty revenue for 2012 and 2011, respectively, was derived from this contract. The receivable from this search engine provider represented 69% and 77% of the December 31, 2012 and 2011 outstanding receivables, respectively."
I wouldn't worry too much about it. The fact that Google was forced to up its bid during the last round of contract negotiations means that Mozilla's value to Google has only increased, despite Chrome's presence on the browser scene.
Re: Mozilla’s reliance on Google is increasing: 90% of 2012 revenue
#50I'm so sick of this argument about Mozilla. It is like saying a Principal Engineer at Microsoft relies on Microsof because it provides 90% of his income. Last time Mozilla's contract was up for negotiation, they caused bidding war that increased their value over the previous contract...it wasn't Google's generosity. You are a fool if you think Mozilla is beholden to Google.
I think a better argument is that Mozilla needs to diversify its revenue sources. Chrome is taking away marketshare from Firefox thanks to advertising and paying a lot to be bundled with Java, Flash, Acrobat etc. updates or just being shipped as default by the PC OEMs. It makes sense for Google because then they needn't pay out so much to Mozilla. For many non tech folks where I had replaced IE with Firefox, I now se…
On a purely market basis, 400k buys talent comparable to a senior manager / director of the Chrome or Safari team of ~100 people, not a VP or CEO of a company with $100m annual revenue.
$400k is what one-trick ponies like doctors and lawyers and traditional industry local small business owners earn.