WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.400 Many of you will be too young to remember this, but popular web browsing software actually 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. 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 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:22.640 giving them out for nothing? Do they just hate money? Ha, of course not. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:26.960 Web browsers are actually monetized quite heavily and do make money. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:31.160 It's just that it's not always obvious to an end user how that happens. 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 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 00:00:42.480 --> 00:00:46.320 by the things that it merely encourages its users to do. 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:52.320 For example, Chrome's search feature automatically uses Google as your search engine, which invariably 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.040 will serve you the ads that make up a huge part of Google's revenue. 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, 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:07.280 only by directing people to Microsoft's Bing search engine and its advertisements instead. 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 00:01:11.640 --> 00:01:15.520 throughout the web are also hosted by Google. 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 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. 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, 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:36.440 such as Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps, some of which are ad-supported, while others 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:40.080 offer paid versions for extra functionality such as more storage space. 00:01:40.080 --> 00:01:45.600 But did you know that Google actually pays to prop up competing web browsers? 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 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:56.040 to get other browsers to do the same thing. 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 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 00:02:11.040 --> 00:02:16.320 to Mozilla's coffers, which has become quite important for Firefox's survival as its usage 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 00:02:23.560 --> 00:02:29.000 folks who just feel like donating, the vast majority of its income now comes from search 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:37.360 engine royalties. Similarly, Apple's Safari gets quite hefty royalties from Google, even more than Firefox. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:42.240 While Firefox got a little over half a billion dollars in royalties in 2017, Google made 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 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 00:02:55.160 --> 00:03:00.480 such as in smartphones, Google apparently makes way more than its payments to Apple on 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 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 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:16.520 called the Basic Attention Token, or BAT. 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 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. 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 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:37.480 cult following. In addition to the aforementioned search engine royalties, they also have deals with sites 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 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:46.720 manufacturers like Xiaomi to pre-install the browser on their devices. 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 00:03:52.160 --> 00:03:57.440 countries to offer predatory loans with absurdly high interest rates. 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 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, 00:04:08.640 --> 00:04:13.720 so they could always survive by offering student loans, since that seems to be basically how 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 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, 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:25.660 we'll bite your toes. I've seen them do it. Ow!