Mozilla Finanz boss warns: Without Google, bankruptcy threatens

The Mozilla Foundation, which also develops the popular Firefox browser, sees itself increasingly between the fronts in the US cartel procedure against Google: If the partnership with Google ends, which the search engine of the same name provides as a default setting for Firefox, Mozilla’s CFO Eric Mulheim even considers a complete end to the non-profit organization. The US Ministry of Justice had previously proposed to ban Google with browser providers.

The partnership said apparently brings the Mozilla Foundation a significant share of its annual sales. It is created by license fees that Google pays to Mozilla by involving the non-profit organization in the income, which is generated by search queries by Firefox users. In return, Google is preset in the Firefox browser as a standard search engine. For this, the group also pays other browser developers. Apple receives $ 20 billion annually so that Safari users use Google search by default. However, Mozilla, unlike other browser providers, is currently dependent on payments from Mountain View.

Mozilla turnover comes through Google significantly

In court, Mulheim now clearly spoke out against a ban on such partnerships and pointed out that around 90 percent of the annual turnover of the Mozilla Foundation came about by the Firefox browser and again 85 percent of this through appropriate license fees. He spoke against Google as part of the antitrust procedure, reports that US magazine Theverge. Meanwhile, one is one Annual report It can be seen that Mozilla’s revenue due to such fees in 2023 was around $ 495 million, with a total turnover of around $ 653 million.

Mulheim talked about “significant cuts”, which would result in the sudden losses through a ban on corresponding license fees for Firefox. He warned of a possible downward spiral, starting with the lack of improvements in the Firefox browser and disappointed users who turn away, right up to the setting of the Firefox browser.

With Firefox it could go downhill

In addition, Mulheim also fears a monopoly elsewhere due to the cuts described. So Mozilla’s own browser engine Gecko is the only one who does not call a big tech group of his property. There is also blink from the chromium project of Google and Webkit from the Safari browser. Mozilla President Mark Surman had already considered the same in March.

The development of Gecko contributed to the fact that various browsers are interoperable and access to the Internet would not be controlled by a company. In contrast to various other companies that had occurred in the Google process, Firefox had not expressed any interest in taking over Chrome.

Justice hopes for quick development on the market

According to the US Justice Ministry, the antitrust measures against Google would enable the establishment of numerous other search engines, so that Mozilla could also obtain from these license fees in order to compensate for the missing Google income. Mulheim insisted in court, however, that this development could take a long time – too long for Mozilla to survive on the market. The Mozilla manager also admitted that other browser providers, for example Opera, have already achieved something similar. The company now generates more income from advertising in its browser than by search engine license fees. However, this approach cannot easily be transferred to Firefox, Mulheim believes. Because the company is also increasingly focusing on the protection of its users’ privacy.

The company recently expanded its business areas to artificial intelligence and digital advertising in order to be able to ensure Firefox financing in the future. Most recently, the Firefox browser also made headlines with changed terms of use to handle user data.