4 ms·

> Finding an alternative source for revenue like that is just really incredibly hard. Mozilla's been trying for a long time. What alternate revenue sources hav

by dx87 6y ago

> Finding an alternative source for revenue like that is just really incredibly hard. Mozilla's been trying for a long time. What alternate revenue sources have they tried? Outside of their recent VPN offering, I haven't seen anything that they've tried to monetize. They didn't even try and monetize Firefox Send, even though the developers had a monetization strategy from the start.

calpaterson 6y ago
Yes it's surprising given how many side-projects Mozilla have how few of them have been monetized given that you must assume they have a genuine interest in finding alternative funding. I'm sure that a number of people would have been prepared to pay for Firefox Send. I know a lot of people who have trouble transferring files too large for email so it surprised me that putting a user interface around backblaze's object store api with Mozilla's brand on it could not be a profitable business.
pseudalopex 6y ago
Pocket. Sponsored tiles. The Mr. Robot debacle.
- roca 6y ago
  Yes. FirefoxOS had some obvious revenue potential. The pattern here of course is that every attempt to raise extra revenue caused storms of protest amongst Mozilla supporters.
  - pseudalopex 6y ago
    Mozilla rolled them out really badly. Pocket was quickly rammed through. Mozilla denied getting paid for the integration. That baffled people who would've understood if it was about money. Mozilla eventually admitted getting paid for referrals. That upset people who felt Mozilla had lied to them. Sponsored tiles kicked off with marketing drivel about transforming the user's content experience.[1] Addressing users first and being more honest might have worked better. The Mr. Robot promotion silently installed an add-on with a cryptic name. People thought they'd been hacked. Mozilla denied getting money for it too. Mozilla treated users like resources instead of stakeholders and lost their trust. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-transformation-with-users-at-the-center/ https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publish...
    - roca 6y ago
      I agree that mistakes were made. It is at best unclear that better rollout would have made a tangible difference to the outcomes.

by dx87 6y ago

calpaterson 6y ago

Yes it's surprising given how many side-projects Mozilla have how few of them have been monetized given that you must assume they have a genuine interest in finding alternative funding. I'm sure that a number of people would have been prepared to pay for Firefox Send. I know a lot of people who have trouble transferring files too large for email so it surprised me that putting a user interface around backblaze's object store api with Mozilla's brand on it could not be a profitable business.

pseudalopex 6y ago

Pocket. Sponsored tiles. The Mr. Robot debacle.

roca 6y ago
Yes. FirefoxOS had some obvious revenue potential. The pattern here of course is that every attempt to raise extra revenue caused storms of protest amongst Mozilla supporters.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  Mozilla rolled them out really badly. Pocket was quickly rammed through. Mozilla denied getting paid for the integration. That baffled people who would've understood if it was about money. Mozilla eventually admitted getting paid for referrals. That upset people who felt Mozilla had lied to them. Sponsored tiles kicked off with marketing drivel about transforming the user's content experience.[1] Addressing users first and being more honest might have worked better. The Mr. Robot promotion silently installed an add-on with a cryptic name. People thought they'd been hacked. Mozilla denied getting money for it too. Mozilla treated users like resources instead of stakeholders and lost their trust. [1] https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-transformation-with-users-at-the-center/ https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publish...
  - roca 6y ago
    I agree that mistakes were made. It is at best unclear that better rollout would have made a tangible difference to the outcomes.