Michelle Baker, the Mozilla CEO, wrote that the Mozilla Foundation made $52.9 million in revenue in 2005. The majority of it coming from search engine relationships, such as Google’s default search box in the top-right of the browser.
These are some very profitable arrangements, ones that have opened up a new category of business model now used by browser and plug-in companies, such as Opera. Mozilla spent $8.2 million in 2005, leaving $44.7 million in profit for what Baker calls “a reserve fund.”
To me, this is an excellent example of people thinking outside of the traditional retailer-consumer based business model. You don’t need to sell products to make money! Partnerships and cooperation can go a long way.
Even websites that tout online advertising as a significant revenue getter are hard pressed to beat a good partnership like the ones Firefox has forged with it’s sponsors. If you are running Firefox, drop down the menu in the upper right and see all of the search engines listed.. Yahoo, Amazon, Answers.com. All paid inclusions, I am sure. But the integration is seemless.
It’s just something to think about when you start looking at ways of making money for your site or service. Sometimes the solutions that are least apparent are the most profitable.
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