Main Highlights:
- Mozilla Corporation produced $466 million in revenue in 2020, primarily through search agreements (notably with Google), subscriptions, and advertising.
- According to Mozilla executive vice president Angela Plohman and chief financial officer Eric Muhlheim, revenue from new product offerings will grow by 150 percent this year. It will account for 14% of overall revenue in 2021.
- Mitchell Baker, the Mozilla Foundation’s CEO and chairwoman write in today’s statement that as advertising and the web’s economic model evolve, they’ve been looking for new and responsible revenue streams that align with their ideals and differentiate them.
- Diversifying Mozilla’s revenue streams seems to be the only way to minimize its reliance on a search arrangement with a company that is both a competitor, owing to the popularity of its Chrome browser and more at odds with Mozilla’s general ideology.
The Mozilla Foundation published its fiscal year 2020 report today. As is customary, this provides an accurate picture of Mozilla’s financial health from a year ago, but Mozilla also published more current data for the first time this year. It’s no secret that Mozilla recently endured a difficult period, culminating in significant layoffs in 2020 when the company restructured its for-profit part, Mozilla Corporation. Despite several technical advancements, Mozilla’s popular Firefox browser is still struggling in a market currently dominated by Chromium-based browsers.
Nonetheless, Mozilla Corporation generated $466 million in revenue in 2020 through search partnerships (primarily driven by its search relationship with Google), subscriptions, and advertising. This is essentially the same as what Mozilla Corporation earned in 2019 when it earned $465 million from these sources. The group anticipates an income of more than $500 million in 2021.
Mozilla’s Offerings
Perhaps most importantly, Mozilla’s new offerings, such as its Mozilla VPN service, Firefox Relay Premium, and Pocket, are gradually but steadily beginning to pay dividends. As Mozilla executive vice president Angela Plohman and chief financial officer Eric Muhlheim observed in today’s release, revenue from new product offerings will increase by 150 percent this year and account for 14% of total revenue in 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, Mozilla’s VPN service revenue increased by 450 percent.
Nonetheless, 86 percent of Mozilla’s earnings in 2020 will come from its search partnership with Google. While this is down from 88 percent in 2019, Mozilla remains utterly reliant on Google for the time being. Thanks to its popular Chrome browser, diversification of Mozilla’s revenue streams is the only way to reduce its reliance on a search arrangement with a firm, both a rival. It is increasingly at odds with Mozilla’s general ideology.
Mitchell Baker, CEO, and chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation writes in today’s statement that as advertising evolves and the web’s business model evolves, they have been investigating new and responsible revenue streams that line with their principles and differentiate them. They’ve long maintained that cookie deprecation and a reorganization of the online advertising economy were imminent – and badly needed. It is nowhere, and they are in a position to steer the industry toward a new form of responsible advertising that respects people while still bringing value to businesses. By developing items for the future, they are establishing a future-oriented firm.
Mozilla wants more consumers to adopt (or return to) its services, whether it’s its browser or its VPN. There is an opportunity here for a non-Chrome browser, with users growing suspicious of Google’s objectives and Microsoft’s Edge team making a few blunders in recent months. At the same time, Mozilla’s efforts to add sponsored suggestions and advertisements to Firefox have not always been well received by the organization’s users.
