Author | Xin Xiaoliang
Produced by
| CSDN (ID: CSDNnews)
A few days ago, Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, released a report titled "Five Walled Gardens: Why Browsers Are Crucial to the Internet and How the Operating System Is Blocked They". In the report, Mozilla mainly accuses Google , Microsoft , Apple and other technology giants using various means to force users to use their default web browser .
Mozilla accuses tech giants of "monopoly" behavior on browsers
Mozilla points out that Google made Chrome browser and Android, Apple made Safari and macOS/iOS, and Microsoft made Edge and Windows. They all influence users to varying degrees of use of their browsers, and preventing users from changing through numerous integrations and a series of prompts, making it difficult for users to switch to another browser.
For example, using a non-Chrome browser to access Google will prompt you to download Chrome. If you use Windows, you will be constantly requested to use Edge browser . Mozilla said these strategies were very successful to some extent and were very unfair to third-party browsers like Firefox, which did not have such appeal to users. Safari is even more overkill. On iOS, , Apple has been lacking the settings to change the default browser before 2020, which means that iOS users have been "forced" to use Safari as the default browser for 13 years. Mozilla also stressed that Safari is still not allowed to be removed from iOS at this time.
"Billions of people around the world rely on the operating systems of large tech companies, Amazon , Apple, Google, Microsoft and Meta all offer their own browsers on their operating systems, and each of them uses their providers to prioritize their own browser over competitors' products. Whether it's Microsoft's push to switch default settings on Windows computers, Apple restricts competitor browsers' capabilities on iOS smartphones, or Google does not allow modification of default browser settings on Android. There are countless examples of standalone browsers being banned by operating systems." Mozilla wrote in his investigation report.
Therefore, Mozilla believes that these large tech companies have various types of monopoly behavior. These include restricting standalone apps, bundling their respective browsers with their operating systems, and setting them as default on the home screen or shortcut bar, etc. For most users, they will not take additional actions to find and discover alternative browser products.
"This is important because all consumers and society as a whole will be affected. Not only do people lose the ability to determine their online experience, but they also receive less innovative and low-quality products. In addition, users may be forced to accept poor privacy results, even unfair contracts. In contrast, competition from independent browsers helps drive innovation in new features and areas such as privacy and security."
According to the description in the Mozilla report, these monopoly behaviors of tech giants on browsers have caused many harms to users, including not limited to: limited choices, low quality, insufficient innovation, poor privacy protection, unfair contracts, etc.
Unlocking browser monopoly Open competition has a long way to go
Foreign media TechCrunch believes that most of Mozilla's conclusions in the report are very "mediocre". Google bundles Chrome with Android, Apple pre-installs Safari on iOS, and most mobile users don't bother changing these default settings, which is no longer news. On the PC side, it's not new to Windows maker Microsoft bundled its own Edge browser to a desktop running its operating system.
However, the severity of the operating system bundling its own software will indeed sound an anti-monopoly alarm for regulators and inspire them to intervene appropriately.The UK Competition and Markets Authority recently stated that after conducting in-depth research on the mobile market, they intend to investigate Apple and Google's market influence in mobile browsers, highlighting "significant concerns" about Google and Apple's market dominance.
In addition, Mozilla did not make specific suggestions for regulatory intervention in this report to force the platform to "do better for consumers and developers." Mozilla said it plans to release further work on remedial measures in the coming months, before they would urge lawmakers to take action to prevent "continuous inaction and stagnant competition from causing further harm to consumers."
browser battles, Firefox lost nearly 50 million users in three years
browser war is no longer new. In the late 1990s, Microsoft's IE browser squeezed Netscape's famous Navigator out of the market. Firefox browser was also popular, with a global market share of up to 40%, but in recent years, its market share has been declining continuously. Mozilla's report released this time may be related to its unoptimistic situation.
In recent years, the advent of Chrome has directly broken the original situation. Safari has relied on its own ecosystem to squeeze into the top two. Microsoft's Edge has also added the Chromium kernel after several twists and turns. According to the latest data from Statcounter in August this year, Google Chrome is still ranked as the global browser market champion, accounting for 65.13%, the second and third are Safari 18.78% and Edge 4.3% respectively. Firefox has been squeezed out of the top three.
Picture source: StatCounter
, and Firefox browser's single-month users also fell from about 250 million in 2019 to about 200 million now. In the past three years, 40 to 50 million users have been lost, and the decline is still continuing. How to stop loss is the primary problem of Firefox browser.
Source: Firefox Public Data Report
As Mozilla said, Chrome is the default browser for Android system on the one hand, and it is recommended to users to install it with Google search engine, while Safari and Microsoft Edge are preset browsers for macOS and Windows respectively. There are natural advantages in competition, but in addition to the external competitive disadvantages, Firefox itself also has major problems. The frequent updates and revisions of Firefox and the disadvantages of performance and speed are all key issues for its long-term loss of loyal old users.
Finally, what browsers are your main force using? Welcome to vote?
Reference link:
https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/22/mozilla-browser-research/
https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/23/browsers_mozilla_microsoft_google/
