Yup; Google / Chrome, Apple / Safari + webkit, and Microsoft / Edge get away with it because their browser is not their product, it's an extra. For Google its original intent was to make the internet faster so that people would see more ads.
Firefox needs a company behind it whose income is not tied to the browser. I don't believe you can monetize a browser, not without doing some dodgy shit like forcing search engines on people, injecting ads, premium features, etc.
I know Firefox tried to launch a number of products over the years to try and make money, but at this point it doesn't seem to be working. I think their only hope financially is to be bought up by a FAANG, but they either have their own browsers or no interest in having one.
> Since not enough people are donating, they have to figure out how to make money otherwise.
I'd love to donate but only for the browser, not for that other stuff. And that seems to be the main problem here: They make tons of money, but there not investing it where they make the money with.
I wonder what percentage of their bottom line comes from goodwill donations from individuals, versus the millions they get each year from Google and various other search companies they have contracts with - in some recent past years Google has been funding like 90%+ of their budget haven't they?
There's Mozilla Foundation and there's Mozilla Corporation (the corporation is a subsidiary of the foundation). For Mozilla Corporation:
> In CY 2018, Mozilla Corporation generated $435.702 million from royalties, subscriptions and advertising revenue compared to $542 million in CY 2017.
Having been disillusioned with what means to try to make money with desktop FOSS software, I would bet that goodwill donations aren't that representative.
Foundations often have trusts. Many of the donations go into the trust and most of your operating expenses (perhaps not including fund raising) come out of the interest payments, not the principle.
I was so disappointed when I discovered Mozilla was spending it as fast as it comes in. There will never be a windfall like the Google donation again.
They could still work out a way to renew the Mozilla-Google contract, if they are extremely desperate.
I would be against it and prefer them to focus on their own products and strike alternative funding deals with multiple companies like what letsencrypt does and NOT solely rely on one source like Google.
