Firefox usage is down 85% despite Mozilla's top exec pay going up 400%

submitted by [deleted] from calpaterson.com

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]Chipit 9 insightful - 3 fun9 insightful - 2 fun10 insightful - 3 fun -  (4 children)

The problem is the Mozilla Foundation. Firefox is just one of their projects, and not even the most important one. At this point it's an unwanted chore. The Mozilla Foundation gets shitloads of money and has tons of activities to do, why should they bother with some web browser project? It'll be spun off at some point I'm sure.

[–]flugegeheimen 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

Most of these "shitloads of money" is a handout from Google for using their search in Firefox as a default. As soon as Firefox joins Netscape Navigator at the graveyard, Mozilla will be dead.

[–]Chipit 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (2 children)

That's not true in the slightest. The Mozilla Foundation has substantial NGO support and Firefox is now a redheaded stepchild. They'd love to be rid of it and go about their work that has nothing to do with web browsers.

[–]flugegeheimen 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit which lives off donations (a few millions per year) and does nothing basically.

Mozilla Corporation is a commercial company making Firefox and receiving $400-$450 millions from Google per year. Search deal handouts have always been (and always will be) the majority of Mozilla's budget.

[–]Trajan 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

To quote their 2018 financial report (the most recently released):

Mozilla’s primary source of revenue is royalty income from contracts with various search engine and information providers. Revenue from these contracts is determined by the search and information providers based upon end user activity or as contractually agreed to. Mozilla records revenue on the accrual basis of accounting based upon the amounts received. - https://assets.mozilla.net/annualreport/2018/mozilla-fdn-2018-short-form-final-0926.pdf

While some may be coming from Yandex and Baidu, it's well established that Google is by far the biggest of the 'search and information providers'. Google pulling their money would obliterate the Mozilla Foundation. Fortunately for them that's unlikely to happen so long as keeping Firefox alive helps allay antitrust concerns. Certainly, absent antitrust concerns, Google doesn't have a strong business argument for paying to be the default search in browsers with such a tiny share of the market.