In August, Google lost the antitrust lawsuit against its search engine and the American government. “After carefully studying the testimony and evidence, the court came to this conclusion: Google is a monopoly and it acted in a manner to maintain that monopoly.”explained Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
From now on, American justice must determine what measures to take to put an end to the practices in question. And as we mentioned in a previous article, the government has requested the dismantling of Google, which should therefore separate from its Google Chrome browser.
However, it is not certain that the American justice system would take such an extreme measure. On the other hand, this could, for example, prevent Google from paying third-party browsers so that they offer Google Search as the default search engine. Such a measure could mechanically lower Google’s market share in search. It would also cause significant financial losses for Apple, which receives billions of dollars thanks to its agreement with Google Search. But beyond that, Mozilla, the foundation that offers the Firefox browser, could lose its main source of revenue.
86% of Mozilla’s revenue comes from search engines
As a reminder, Mozilla is not a company, but a foundation. And if it has tried to diversify its sources of income, it still depends enormously on payments from Google. According to a Mozilla document, in 2022, of the $593 million generated by the foundation, $510 million came from “royalties”. This corresponds to a share of around 86%.
“Mozilla integrates its customers’ search engines as a default or optional status available in the Firefox web browser. Mozilla generally receives royalties equal to a certain percentage of the revenue earned by its customers through their search engines integrated into the Firefox web browser.we also read in the document.
If American justice decides to prevent Google from entering into this type of agreement with Mozilla, the foundation would lose its main source of income. Note that the foundation has already commented on the verdict pronounced by the judge, as part of the Google trial, in August.
“Mozilla has always championed online competition and choice, especially in search”said a spokesperson, according to Fortune magazine. “We are carefully reviewing the court’s decision, considering its potential impact on Mozilla and how we can positively influence next steps… Firefox continues to offer a range of search options, and we remain committed to serving the preferences of our users while encouraging a competitive market.”
- According to data as of December 2, Mozilla Firefox has more than 160 million monthly active users.
- Google lost its antitrust lawsuit in the United States
- And if the government recommends a dismantling, justice could also be content to block the agreements which allow Google to pay browsers to be the default search engine
- Such a decision would be catastrophic for Mozilla, 86% of whose revenue comes from search engines.
