- The Department of Justice wants to break Google's search monopoly, which could also end their deal with Firefox.
- Google currently pays a hefty sum to keep its search as the default option on Firefox.
- If this deal falls through, then it could mean serious budget cuts for Firefox and potentially its end.
Google is currently fighting a legal battle with the Department of Justice to break up the company’s search monopoly. The DOJ wants Google to stop paying other browsers to use their search as the default option, but this could mean serious ramifications for Chrome’s biggest rival, Firefox, leading it to go out of business.
Mozilla (the company behind Firefox) CFO Eric Muhlheim testified in front of the Justice Department, He openly mentioned that losing the deal with Google, to keep their search as the default in Firefox, could lead to a “downward spiral”. He added that they will have to make “significant cuts across the company”.
To shed some backstory, Google currently pays a hefty sum to Mozilla as part of their search engine deal. This makes up 85% of the browser’s revenue. Losing the deal would likely mean the end of Firefox. That’s because they would have to cut product engineering investments in the browser, making it less appealing to users.
Currently, Firefox is the only popular non-Chromium browser out there. And its downfall will only establish the market dominance that the court is trying to curb. It is “the only browser engine that is held not by Big Tech but by a nonprofit”. So, its existence in the market is a necessary one.
Muhlheim said that they have talked with Microsoft to feature their Bing search as the default option. However, without Google taking a bid on the contract, the revenue share that Mozilla wants would likely go down. Plus, Bing is not able to monetize search traffic as efficiently as Google does.
So if the DOJ has its way with Google, then it would mean tough times for the non-profit browser. While they can wait for some other search engine to match Google’s deal, it is hypothetical, and they don’t know when and whether that day will come. Till then, Firefox will have to suffer major cuts and serious consequences, the likes of which could result in the end of the browser.
