According to the resource ZDNet, Mozilla and Google have extended their agreements: Google will remain the default search engine in the Firefox browser until at least 2023. The companies have not officially announced the deal, which ZDNet estimates at between $ 400 million and $ 450 million a year, but is expected to announce it later this fall. The current agreement expires at the end of 2020.
«Mozilla Partnership with Google in the search continues, and Google is a search engine on in the Firefox browser default in many areas around the world, – the official representative of Mozilla O’Kelly Justin (Justin O’Kelly) in an email to The Verge. ” We recently renewed our partnership, and our relationship has not changed. “
This information comes alongside Mozilla’s recent announcement of plans to lay off 250 employees – about a quarter of its staff. Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker wrote in a blog post that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the company’s earnings. He also added that the company will focus on creating new products that people love and want to use, re-focus on the community, and identify new revenue streams. In January, Mozilla had already laid off about 70 people.
Most of Mozilla’s revenue comes from search engines: Google in most territories, Yandex in Russia, and Baidu in China. Companies pay to have their search engine used by default in Firefox. Firefox’s share of the browser market has declined over the past decade, and several of the company’s big products, such as the Firefox smartphone and Firefox OS, have flopped in the market over the past decade.