Some quick thoughts on The Browser Company // Arc Browser. Arc is an internet browser that has raised $18MM and has gotten lots of pub.
For the betterment of the consumer, may I be wrong and eat my words 🫡
My take: I'm skeptical that Arc will attain >2.46% (Firefox's current market share) of the browser market.
Why
- Incumbents provide substitute products that millions of users enjoy enough (Chrome, Safari, Edge).
- I do not believe Arc offers a 10x better experience above/beyond the incumbents. This could change but I don't expect it.
- Incumbents have a significant distribution edge that doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon.
- Hypothetically a new platform could emerge and Browser Co could cut a deal (i.e. Google Search <> Apple) but that seems unlikely.
Given all that ^ I don't see how Arc Browser crosses the chasm from a niche browser tech folks seem to enjoy to everyday people.
I'm sure something similar was said about Chrome vs. Internet Explorer.
EDIT 8/4/2024: I just found out that Mozilla publishes their revenue numbers
- https://stateof.mozilla.org/
- in 2021/2022 their primary driver of revenue was "royalties"
Mozilla incorporates search engines of its customers as a default status or an optional status available in the Firefox web browser. Mozilla generally receives royalties at a certain percentage of revenues earned by its customers through their search engines incorporated in the Firefox web browser
- They made $510M in 2022 and $527M in 2021 from "royalties"
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