also @ TechSpot: Apple to announce iPad 3 in early March, shares approaching $500

Mozilla reveals 2008 revenue, rumors say Firefox coming to PS3

By

November 19, 2009, 6:23 PM EST

The Mozilla Foundation has revealed some financial figures from last year, showing 5% rise in revenue to $79 million during 2008. Much of that money came from the foundation's search ad deal with Google, which currently lasts through 2011.

Unfortunately, that growth has tapered off dramatically in the last couple of years. For comparison, in 2007 the Mozilla Foundation reported $75 million in revenue, a 12% increase over 2006. Mozilla chairperson Mitchell Baker goes into much greater depth on her blog, if you are interested.

Dollars aside, Mozilla's Firefox has steadily climbed to the world's second most used Web browser, chipping away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Firefox currently holds approximately one quarter of the global market share, and recently surpassed IE6, the most used version of Internet Explorer.

In somewhat related news, a rumor sprouted today which suggests that Sony may have plans to use Firefox on its PlayStation 3 console. The move is surely welcomed by most, as the PS3's built-in browser is considered to be less reliable and accurate at handling websites than a desktop-grade browser.

No tags on this story

User Comments (12)

Post a comment
Guest
on November 19, 2009
6:51 PM
That would be awesome if Firefox became the browser of the PS3. It'd be much less likely Hulu would block that, if it meant cutting off a large part of their pc audience that also use firefox.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyeemtS1jII

Reply | Quote

Didou
on November 19, 2009
6:59 PM
Hulu probably blocks based on the platform detected, not simply the browser.

Reply | Quote

DragonMaster
on November 19, 2009
7:04 PM
Well, the PS3 browser is already Mozilla-based. It just won't be an outdated version anymore.

Reply | Quote

Guest
on November 19, 2009
8:09 PM
"Unfortunately, that growth has tapered off dramatically in the last couple of years."

It's not really unfortunate. We don't optimize for revenue and we're doing quite OK with the revenue we are generating today. We're growing as fast as ever by building an always improving Web browser that more than 300 million people love using. That's where we optimize.

If we wanted to optimize for revenue, we'd sell search to the highest bidder and make orders of magnitude more money, but that's not what we're about. We're about providing the best possible experience to the largest possible audience and I think Firefox is doing quite well at that.

- A

Reply | Quote

Guest
on November 19, 2009
8:11 PM
That would be awesome if Firefox became the browser of the PS3.
This is probably a rumor. If this is happening, it's all Sony. Mozilla is not involved. Then again, because Firefox is open source, Sony is free to take our code and do great things with it. I think Firefox would make a fine PS3 browser.

Reply | Quote

Puiu
on November 20, 2009
12:44 AM
I might become their best marketing move since Slim got out. Too bad i don't own a console though i would like to buy a PS3 in the near future.

Reply | Quote

Guest
on November 20, 2009
2:20 AM
"Well, the PS3 browser is already Mozilla-based"

No, it really isn't. It's the craptastic NetFront browser used on many cell phones.

Reply | Quote

BMfan
on November 20, 2009
5:10 AM
Now this i would rather have than stupid facebook.

Reply | Quote

Nirkon
on November 25, 2009
2:13 AM
Well its days like these when you can say 'thank god for google'...
or we'll probably be binging on our firefoxs... XD

Reply | Quote

realxboxmaster
on November 25, 2009
9:15 AM
Nobody really uses the PS3 for browsing the net. PS3 was design to do 2 things ( PLay Games and Blu-Ray. That's why we have Pc's to do that.

Reply | Quote

Guest
on December 13, 2009
8:47 AM
no it's not, it's based on the netfront browser for phones

Reply | Quote

hheemmpp
on December 16, 2009
2:58 PM
I love the Firefox browser on my computer but imagine it on a PS3, *gruel*

Reply | Quote

Browse more commented news

Post a new comment

Follow TechSpot

Feeds & More Newsletter