Microsoft is trying to reinvigorate interest in Bingand in a way it has achieved it after integrating features based on ChatGPT. However, those from Redmond would not settle for the benefits of OpenAI technology to gain market share from Google, and for this reason they would go one step further. As reported The Informationthe Redmonds would be willing to make it the default browser for Mozilla Firefox.
According to the aforementioned media, Microsoft is considering making an offer to win the contract for Mozilla Firefox, which expires this year, and make Bing your new default search engine. The report cites two people with knowledge of the situation, although details about the proposal are really scant.
Consider that today Google pays Mozilla a percentage of the revenue it generates from its online ads. This is where the Redmonds would hit their first hurdle, as the money they make from Bing ads doesn’t even come close to Mountain View’s. Therefore, it is estimated that the agreement with the developers of Firefox should be negotiated under a different structure than the current one. And the adoption of generative AI, in the hands of GPT-4 and other OpenAI technologies, could be a very attractive selling point.
The big question is: is it really useful for Bing to be the default search engine for Mozilla Firefox? And it all depends on how you look at it. No one doubts that Google is the number 1 search engine in the world, and that is not going to change. At Microsoft they know this, and they are aware that not even the improvements that came to Bing with ChatGPT are enough to unseat Californians from their dominance in the sector.
Certainly, then, “stealing” Mozilla Firefox’s browser shouldn’t take too big of a toll on Google’s market share. However, any improvement of marketshare is potentially very lucrative for those in Redmond. And therein lies the crux of the question.
Last February, Phil Ockenden, Microsoft’s chief financial officer, made it clear that Bing doesn’t need to catch up with Google to make brutal amounts of money. “The total potential market for digital advertising is over half a trillion dollars, and within that, approximately 40% is in search ads. For every share point we gain in that market, there is a 2,000 revenue opportunity million dollars for our business,” he said in a presentation to investors.
Bringing Bing to Mozilla Firefox could be very lucrative for Microsoft
If Microsoft actually makes Bing the default browser for Mozilla Firefox, it could open the door to a very important new revenue stream. Of course, users would still have the option to change the search engine to Google, DuckDuckGo, or others. But it is also a reality that many use the software as installed and do not modify the default options. Either because they don’t know how to do it, or because they just don’t care.
This does not mean that Bing’s only growth strategy is to capture new “bounce” users. But if each new share point in the search ad market can represent multi-million dollar revenue, The days of trying to keep up with Google are long gone.. Which also doesn’t mean that Microsoft is giving up trying to let you know that it thinks its products are better than Mountain View’s. It’s in their DNA, after all.
Bringing the new Bing to Mozilla Firefox would not be the only strategy of this type that the Redmonds are considering. A short time ago it became known that Samsung would be studying incorporating the Microsoft search engine as the default option on its Android phones and tablets. A change that, if materialized, could be a blow to Google. According to The New York Timesto Californians they receive about 3,000 million dollars annually by the searches carried out from mobile devices of the Korean brand.
The Information it also indicates that Safari is another potential platform that Bing could target as its default browser. While Apple’s browser also defaults to Google, the current link expires next year.. Will those of Satya Nadella dare to try to impose their search engine on the products of their former archrival?