Mozilla doesn’t need Google’s help to make money

You’d be surprised how many of Google’s competitors actually rely on it for revenue, but as of now, Mozilla is no longer one of those competitors. Google has provided Mozilla with the vast majority of its revenue for years, but after Chrome was released, Mozilla felt like it’d be best if it wasn’t relying on a competitor for money, which is why it decided to turn to Yahoo. The company also has smaller deals with Amazon, Baidu, eBay, Microsoft, and Yandex, and the no-Google life must be working out pretty well for Mozilla, because the company is making more money than ever. 

The Mozilla Foundation has released last year’s financial report, and the company recorded a 4.9% year-to-year growth compared to 2013. Mozilla’s revenue is on a rising trend, with the foundation reporting it made $329 million / €309 million in 2014, compared to $314 million / €295 million in 2013, and $311 million / €292 million in 2012. Expenses also grew, by 7.6% in 2014, to a total of $318 million / €299 million, up from $295 million / €278 million in 2013. According to internal data, 90% of the revenue Mozilla made last year came from Google and Yahoo!, the two companies it had search engine deals with. If you haven’t noticed by now, Mozilla, the organization behind the Firefox browser, has hundreds of employees around the globe. It pays all those people and the server infrastructure needed to create, manage and run Firefox (and other products) by striking deals with search engines. Every time a user types anything inside a search box in Firefox, they’re redirected to a search engine page, where ads are displayed. The search engines, Google and Yahoo!, reward Firefox for the indirect ad views by paying a share of their revenue.