Mozilla lays off 70 employees as its revenue declines

[midian182]

In brief: Firefox maker Mozilla Corporation is laying off around 70 employees as the firm waits to earn revenue from new products outside of its browser.

In an internal memo obtained by TechCrunch, Mozilla chairwoman and interim CEO Mitchell Baker wrote: “Our 2019 plan underestimated how long it would take to build and ship new, revenue-generating products. Given that, and all we learned in 2019 about the pace of innovation, we decided to take a more conservative approach to projecting our revenue for 2020. We also agreed to a principle of living within our means, of not spending more than we earn for the foreseeable future.”

The layoffs have affected some senior members of staff, including senior release manager Liz Henry.

Big layoffs at @Mozilla today. Anyone want a badass senior release manager, experienced in F/LOSS? Bay Area/Remote. I'm so proud of my work at Mozilla, shipping Firefox to hundreds of millions of people around the world. https://t.co/WoNGqwmmxk <3

— Liz Henry (@lizhenry) 15 January 2020

"We're making a significant investment to fund innovation. In order to do that responsibly, we've also had to make some difficult choices which led to the elimination of roles at Mozilla which we announced internally today," Baker added, in a blog post.

At the end of 2017, the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, Mozilla Corp., had around 1,200 employees. The announced layoffs only affect Mozilla Corp., which will reduce its staff to around 1,000 people.

Mozilla still gets most of its money from global browser search partnerships, but its falling popularity has seen revenue decline in recent years, forcing it to look toward other sources.

While Firefox is the second-most-popular browser behind Chrome, the gap is significant, with Google’s browser taking over 67 percent of the market share, while Mozilla’s product is on just 9 percent. The number of Firefox installations has been declining in recent times, too, dropping from around 312 million three years ago to 253 million today.

Some of the new products that Mozilla hopes will generate extra revenue include a Firefox-specific VPN called Firefox Private Network, a password manager called Lockwise, which is available for free right now, and Firefox Monitor, which lets people check if they’ve been part of a data breach (it uses the Have I Been Pwned site). Monitor is also free, but the company could start offering subscriptions.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83575-mozilla-lays-off-70-employees-revenue-declines.html

 

[FPSChris]

Had and used FF for as long as I can remember.
Chrome is alright but I find FF, as a power user to be a lot better.

All my family use it too.

 

[Uncle Al]

With the number of browsers out here now it would appear that "success" is doing anything over break even. Great for the consumer, but tough on the companies .... and sadly, this is exactly the sort of thing that encourages selling of information to 3rd parties .....

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Remember how firefox fired their new CEO for having naughty opinions?

Get Woke go Broke is still a thing. Their corporate culture values personal beliefs and rightthink over good coders and producing results. The end result of this is firefox mobile sucking the big one, Mozilla promising the advances from firefox focus would make their way in, and years later still they are two seperate products, one sucks the big one and the other can only use a single tab at a time with no extensions.

Rather then upgrading mozilla OS into a proper android competitor, Mozilla let it die on the vine and allowed google to continue their mobile domination, and all the money that entails, as companies are beginning to look for google alternatives and ship their phones with no google software installed. Then mozilla went and broke extensions, destroyed add on compatibility, and pissed off many of the older user base.

Mozilla is being mismanaged into the ground.

 

[BSim500]

"Mozilla still gets most of its money from global browser search partnerships, but its falling popularity has seen revenue decline in recent years, forcing it to look toward other sources."

Firefox Tab Options (link) vs Vivaldi Tab Options (link)

Unfortunately, that "falling popularity" is entirely self-inflicted due to Mozilla spending an extraordinary amount of effort dumbing down Firefox to extremes (see above comparison of how other Chromium browsers have already "out-Firefoxed Firefox"), which has already driven a lot of their long-term core supporters elsewhere whilst most of the casuals they're targeting would rather use Chrome than a Chrome-clone, leaving them stuck in the middle with a long-term goal of chasing thin-air...

 

[ShagnWagn]

I stopped using it on one of my two main computers. The constant prompts of updates every day is very annoying. Add in there is no easy way to disable the notices, I just quit using it. There is a setting buried far into it I think, but I am not going through the hassle for every computer.

Chrome has privacy issues. IE is crap and outdated. Edge is the worst of all. There really is no browser I am comfortable with aside from the constant nagging in FF.

 

[Teko03]

I stopped using it on one of my two main computers. The constant prompts of updates every day is very annoying. Add in there is no easy way to disable the notices, I just quit using it. There is a setting buried far into it I think, but I am not going through the hassle for every computer.

Chrome has privacy issues. IE is crap and outdated. Edge is the worst of all. There really is no browser I am comfortable with aside from the constant nagging in FF.

Try the new Microsoft Edge (just released yesterday), built on Chromium with a heavy focus on privacy. Read about the Privacy features here: https://microsoftedgewelcome.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy

 

[DelJo63]

I stopped using it on one of my two main computers. The constant prompts of updates every day is very annoying. ...There really is no browser I am comfortable with aside from the constant nagging in FF.

Have no such experience re updates every day. Updates are infrequent, well advised, and resume current sessions when updated. Been a satisfied, multi-tabbed user for years.

 

[umbala]

Maybe they should try pushing update to users that breaks every extensions. Oh wait, they already did that twice before. Maybe the third time will be the charm and cause their revenues to skyrocket!

 

[ShagnWagn]

Try the new Microsoft Edge (just released yesterday), built on Chromium with a heavy focus on privacy. Read about the Privacy features here: https://microsoftedgewelcome.microsoft.com/en-us/privacy

It would be pretty weird to install edge on windows 7 - if even available. I require features like script and cookie blockers to even consider a browser. I haven't looked if edge even has this.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Have no such experience re updates every day. Updates are infrequent, well advised, and resume current sessions when updated. Been a satisfied, multi-tabbed user for years.

This has been my experience with Firefox, been using it for years and it doesn't nag me for anything. I dunno what I've set differently than SW for it to work this way.

 

[trparky]

It would be pretty weird to install edge on windows 7 - if even available. I require features like script and cookie blockers to even consider a browser. I haven't looked if edge even has this.

Any extension that can be installed in Google Chrome can be installed in the new Microsoft Chrome Edge, you can even install extensions from Google's extension store. If if you can do it in Google Chrome, you can do it in Microsoft Edge.

 

[ZedRM]

Mozilla is being mismanaged into the ground.

And the "Woke" generation is responsible.

 

[trparky]

And the "Woke" generation is responsible.

Wait a second. What's wrong with standing up for principles? Last time I checked, that's usually seen as a good thing.

Or am I missing something here?

 

[ZedRM]

Wait a second. What's wrong with standing up for principles? Last time I checked, that's usually seen as a good thing.

Yes, let's stand up for principles, shall we? How about we stand up for a persons right to have and express an opinion, support an idea that goes along with that opinion and not get fired and thrown out with the trash for going so, eh? It's called respect for freedom of expression and speech. "Woke" special-snowflakes want to suppress any idea or ideal that does not fall in line with their own. The former CEO of Mozilla was the victim of the very same bullying and suppression they claim he was apart of. That makes the "Woke" hypocrites, conspirators and the same kind of trash they claimed he was. Mozilla was and is continuing to be damaged by that pathetic display of arrogance and ignorance.

End of story.

 

[trparky]

I thought being "woke" meant that you stood up for what was right. Am I misunderstanding what it means to be "woke"?

 

[ZedRM]

I thought being "woke" meant that you stood up for what was right. Am I misunderstanding what it means to be "woke"?

That depends greatly on what your definition of what "right" is. Some people think certain things are "right" while others think those very same things are completely backwards and wrong.

 

[Danny101]

I thought being "woke" meant that you stood up for what was right. Am I misunderstanding what it means to be "woke"?

"Woke" is leftist ideology and according to them, they are right and everyone else is wrong, always. While good and bad ideas can come out of both sides of the left-right paradigm, the woke lefties are often "out there" with theirs and would try to use violence and government bully stick tactics to completely shut down debate. They still can't grasp the annoyance, ire, and disdain that they have incited.

 

[trieste1s]

Firefox with WebRender is still going strong on my desktop. It is still customizable where it matters. Unfortunately it seems like the management and head developers are living in a distortion bubble, and the Chrome-ification at some point was nauseating and disappointing. Continue driving towards faster browsing speeds on ever more complex webpages, but understand that Firefox's draw also includes privacy and customizability.