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Tag: Mozilla VPN

  • Mozilla to Pass $500 Million in 2021 As Other Services Take Off

    Mozilla to Pass $500 Million in 2021 As Other Services Take Off

    Mozilla is closing in on a major milestone, set to pass $500 million in 2021 revenue as the company’s other services gain ground.

    Mozilla has always been in a unique and precarious position. The organization is responsible for one of the most important pieces of software, in its Firefox web browser. Although Chrome has long-since come to dominate the browser market, Firefox consistently wins praise for its focus on user privacy, unlike Chrome. In fact, Mozilla has established itself as a stalwart defender of user privacy, and is on the forefront of such efforts.

    Despite its importance, and what the company stands for, Mozilla’s primary financial support has come from search deals with Google, to the tune of nearly 90% of the company’s revenue. Relying on its greatest competitor, one whose values are almost diametrically opposed to Mozilla’s, is a dangerous position to depend on.

    According to TechCrunch, the status quo is finally starting to change. While Mozilla reported $466 million in search revenue in 2020, and $465 million in 2019, the organization is set to pass $500 million in 2021.

    Most significantly, however, an increasing share of Mozilla’s revenue is coming from its other services, such as Mozilla VPN, Pocket and Firefox Relay Premium. In fact, revenue from these other services is expected to grow 150% in 2020, accounting for 14% of Mozilla’s total revenue. According to TechCrunch, Mozilla’s VPN service alone saw a 450% revenue growth from 2020 to 2021.

    While 14% is still a relatively small portion of Mozilla’s total revenue, it’s an excellent start toward finally breaking free of dependence on Google.

  • Mozilla Expands VPN to Mac and Linux – Testing Included

    Mozilla Expands VPN to Mac and Linux – Testing Included

    Mozilla has been looking to expand its services and products beyond its Firefox web browser in an effort to diversify its profits. One of those endeavors is its VPN service that started life as a Firefox extension, before transitioning to a closed beta and then a publicly available service.

    The initial releases, however, only supported Windows, Android and iOS. The company has now expanded its support to include macOS and Linux, rounding out support for every major platform.

    Mozilla VPN currently offers service in the US, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. This makes its focus far more narrow than competing services, such as ExpressVPN, although Mozilla says more countries will be added.

    Mozilla promises it doesn’t log network activity and doesn’t restrict bandwidth. Like many of its competitors, Mozilla VPN can be run on five different devices from a single account.

    The company has claimed that its service is faster than rivals because it uses less code. In our testing, however, those claims seem highly subjective, based on the selected VPN server.

    For example, starting with an internet connection that averages 35 to 40 Mbps, we connected to Mozilla VPN using the three closest available locations. Two of the locations yielded speeds ranging from 0.37 to 0.44 Mbps. The third location, Chicago, yielded speeds of 32 and 33 Mbps.

    Mozilla VPN Speed Tests
    Mozilla VPN Speed Tests

    While not comprehensive, our brief testing shows Mozilla still has some work to do before it rivals ExpressVPN, widely considered the fastest service available.

    Nonetheless, with Mozilla’s well-established reputation for protecting user privacy, their entry into the market is a welcome one.