Head of the Mozilla Foundation in Moscow

    Mozilla Foundation Chairman Mitchell BakerOn March 27 in Moscow, a small (I would even say - chamber) joint press briefing of the Yandex and Mozilla Foundation companies was held on their recently established partnership. The main culprits of the event - Arkady Volozh and Mitchell Baker - called in only three dozen journalists (among whom was me and Arthur Welf) and immediately admitted that there would be no news and high-profile statements, but there would be answers to any questions. Well, if so, we will ask.

    I will warn you right away: technical questions asked by Habr users last week, it was not possible to voice it, as Mrs. Baker was not very competent in this regard and advised me to contact the Mozilla technical specialists (in particular, Brandon Ike), which we will definitely do in the near future. Nevertheless, the briefing turned out to be quite interesting.

    Before journalists began to ask questions, the head of Yandex, Arkady Volozh, said a few kind words about the partnership with Mozilla and emphasized that his company had always tried to make friends with large organizations and would continue to do so. The head of the Mozilla Foundation, Mitchell Baker, in turn, also responded extremely positively to the partnership with Yandex and allowed herself to tell a little about the history of Mozilla.

    According to her, the Internet could develop in one of two directions: “open” and “closed”. The first implies absolutely free development, mainly determined by the users themselves, and the second - determined exclusively by a certain group of people, an organization. Since Mitchell and her colleagues supported the first development path, they created Mozilla and tried to develop the company along the appropriate path. Now Mozilla's share in the global market is about 20%, and in Europe - about 30%. Having decided to take serious positions in Russia, Mozilla began searching for a partner, which Yandex eventually became. Now the share of Firefox in Russia is slightly less than 18%, which is a pretty good indicator, especially considering the fact that the Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit organization. But how then does the company earn? With the answer to this question, the press briefing itself began.

    Tell me, what does Mozilla make?
    Baker : Like most open source projects, we profit from search advertising.
    Volozh : An advertising business model is the main one on the modern Internet. In this case, everything is simple: when users search for something through a browser, the authors of this browser receive a portion of the income from the relevant search advertising.

    Is the true reason for the Mozilla-Yandex deal the output of the Google Chrome browser?
    Baker : No. We chose Yandex because it is the best partner for us.

    Is it possible for Yandex to issue a Russian browser (or jointly with Yandex)? After all, Russia already has its own search engines, messengers.
    Baker: The Russian browser does not have to be so specific that it can only be used in Russia.
    Volozh : We will not make our browser at least until we hire a person who invented JavaScript :)

    Do you think it is possible now that a single browser will occupy not 20-30 percent of the market, but all 90? In other words, is monopolization possible in this market?
    Baker : As for Mozilla, we have no goal of taking a dominant position in the market. The share of Internet Explorer will decline, but not very rapidly. Safari's share will grow only in one case: when the share of Mac OS grows. As for Google Chrome ... Well, let's see if big money and a strong brand can significantly affect the market.

    What do you see the specifics of Russia and the Russian market?
    Baker : Local services are very popular in Russia. In addition, which is typical, the use of mobile Internet and related technologies in Russia is very different from, say, Japan and the USA.

    Arkady, Yandex has already released its IE assembly, now Firefox. What to expect next?
    Volozh : What is happening with Microsoft now is the level of relations with Mozilla last June.

    When it comes to the “Russian version of Firefox,” does it mean only Russia or other countries (Ukraine, Kazakhstan) too?
    Baker : We release language versions that are not tied to a specific country, but to a specific language.

    Did Mozilla start earning more after she refused to cooperate with Google in favor of Yandex?
    Volozh : It is very difficult to calculate.
    Baker : You won’t believe me, but I don’t know :)

    How has the distribution dynamics of Firefox changed after Google replaced it in its recommended set of software with Chrome?
    Baker : We are seeing some small changes.

    Is Mozilla possible with other search engines and companies?
    Baker : Hardly.
    Volozh:; )

    On this positive note, the press briefing was over and communication was gradually transferred to the sidelines. Unfortunately, Mitchell could not give answers to technical questions, because she advised me to contact the relevant specialists in Mozilla, which I will do in April. I really hope that we can communicate with Brandon Ike. Stay tuned for announcements.

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