1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,400 Many of you will be too young to remember this, but popular web browsing software actually 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:12,640 used to cost money. In fact, it wasn't until 1998 that Netscape Navigator became free to use for regular consumers. 3 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:17,960 But almost no one pays for web browsers anymore, so why are the companies that developed them 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:22,640 giving them out for nothing? Do they just hate money? Ha, of course not. 5 00:00:22,640 --> 00:00:26,960 Web browsers are actually monetized quite heavily and do make money. 6 00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:31,160 It's just that it's not always obvious to an end user how that happens. 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:35,640 So let's take a look at how some of the popular browsers keep themselves afloat, starting 8 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:42,480 with the biggest one of them all, Google Chrome. It turns out that development of the world's most popular web browser is easily supported 9 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:46,320 by the things that it merely encourages its users to do. 10 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:52,320 For example, Chrome's search feature automatically uses Google as your search engine, which invariably 11 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,040 will serve you the ads that make up a huge part of Google's revenue. 12 00:00:56,240 --> 00:01:01,640 Oh, and by the way, this is very similar to how Microsoft's Edge browser makes money as well, 13 00:01:01,640 --> 00:01:07,280 only by directing people to Microsoft's Bing search engine and its advertisements instead. 14 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:11,640 And then, once you click off of Google's search page, many of the ads that you see 15 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,520 throughout the web are also hosted by Google. 16 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:20,360 So the idea is that it makes sense for Google to build and maintain a browser that gets 17 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:26,560 people on the web and just browsing, which will lead them to look at Google's ads. 18 00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:31,600 It also doesn't hurt that Chrome steers users towards using Google's own suite of apps, 19 00:01:31,600 --> 00:01:36,440 such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps, some of which are ad-supported, while others 20 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:40,080 offer paid versions for extra functionality such as more storage space. 21 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:45,600 But did you know that Google actually pays to prop up competing web browsers? 22 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:52,680 How does that make any sense? Well, just as Google aims to use Chrome to direct users to its services, it also tries 23 00:01:52,680 --> 00:01:56,040 to get other browsers to do the same thing. 24 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:03,960 Mozilla Firefox is a great example of this. Google has made multiple deals with Mozilla over the years to make Google Firefox's default 25 00:02:03,960 --> 00:02:11,040 search engine in certain markets. Other search engines, such as Yandex and Baidu, have also contributed large amounts of money 26 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:16,320 to Mozilla's coffers, which has become quite important for Firefox's survival as its usage 27 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:23,560 share has been declining for a number of years. Although Mozilla still operates as a non-profit and does still receive contributions from 28 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:29,000 folks who just feel like donating, the vast majority of its income now comes from search 29 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:37,360 engine royalties. Similarly, Apple's Safari gets quite hefty royalties from Google, even more than Firefox. 30 00:02:37,360 --> 00:02:42,240 While Firefox got a little over half a billion dollars in royalties in 2017, Google made 31 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:49,360 a deal to pay Apple $12 billion in 2019 to make sure that Google would stay Safari's 32 00:02:49,360 --> 00:02:55,160 default search service. And although it seems strange since Google and Apple compete directly in other areas 33 00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:00,480 such as in smartphones, Google apparently makes way more than its payments to Apple on 34 00:03:00,480 --> 00:03:07,040 the increased ad revenue that it gets back. To take things in a slightly different direction, let's have a quick look at the Brave browser 35 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:13,520 known for its focus on user privacy. Well, the way they do it is a bit unique in that it's based around a cryptocurrency 36 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:16,520 called the Basic Attention Token, or BAT. 37 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:21,400 Users can opt in to a rewards program that will pay them in BAT for viewing ads with 38 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:27,160 70% of the revenue going to users and the other 30% going to the developers of Brave. 39 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:32,360 We'd be remiss too if we didn't also mention Opera, a browser that still has a substantial 40 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:37,480 cult following. In addition to the aforementioned search engine royalties, they also have deals with sites 41 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:42,960 like eBay to get placed on a user's main speed dial page and have partnered with smartphone 42 00:03:42,960 --> 00:03:46,720 manufacturers like Xiaomi to pre-install the browser on their devices. 43 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:52,160 And then there was also a recent scandal where it appeared that Opera was using apps in certain 44 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:57,440 countries to offer predatory loans with absurdly high interest rates. 45 00:03:57,440 --> 00:04:01,440 So the bad news is they've used up a fair bit of their goodwill and they may not be 46 00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:08,640 a popular browser for much longer. So the good news is that they're gaining valuable experience in the industry of loan sharking, 47 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:13,720 so they could always survive by offering student loans, since that seems to be basically how 48 00:04:13,720 --> 00:04:18,760 that works. Thanks for watching guys! Like, dislike, check out our other videos, leave a comment if you have a suggestion for 49 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:23,160 a future as fast as possible, and don't forget to subscribe because if you do chipmunks, 50 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:25,660 we'll bite your toes. I've seen them do it. Ow!