by Martin Brinkmann on November 28, 2018 in Firefox – Last Update: November 28, 2018 – 18 comments
Mozilla published the State of Mozilla 2017 report yesterday which includes financial information for the year 2017. The organization managed to increase revenue by over $40 million U.S. Dollar in 2017 and Net Assets by $88 million U.S. Dollar.
Mozilla’s total unrestricted revenue and support rose to $562 million U.S. Dollar, an increase of more than $40 million U.S. Dollar over 2016. Partnership deals with companies that provide the default search engine in Mozilla’s Firefox web browser made up the largest part of Mozilla’s revenue.
A total of $539 million U.S. Dollar came from royalty deals with companies like Google or Yandex, the remaining $33 million U.S. Dollar from other revenue sources including donations, interest and dividend income, or subscription and advertising revenue.
Less than a tenth of Mozilla’s overall revenue comes from other revenue sources.
Mozilla ended the search engine inclusion deal with Yahoo — now part of Verizon — prematurely in 2017 and negotiated a deal with Google instead. Google Search replaced Yahoo Search in the United States and select other countries as the default search provider in the Firefox web browser.
The 2017 financial report includes Mozilla’s acquisition of Pocket in February of the year. Pocket, a service to save, share and read articles found on the Web, was acquired by Mozilla for $30 million U.S. Dollar.
Mozilla’s total expenses exceeded $421 million U.S. Dollar, an increase of about $80 million. Software development, branding and marketing, and general and administrative expenses rose significantly in 2017. Software development costs increased from $225 million U.S. Dollar to $252 million U.S. Dollar; the Thunderbird project received $196,000 from Mozilla in 2017.
Total assets did not rise as much as last year; Mozilla reported total assets of $495 million U.S. Dollar in 2016, an increase of $123 million U.S. Dollar over the previous year.
You can access the entire report on the Mozilla website (scroll down as it is listed at the bottom of the page).
Closing Words
In 2016, I noted that Mozilla was doing well financially, and the same can be said for the year 2018 and the 2017 financial report. Mozilla managed to increase revenue and total assets; expenses did increase as well, however. The company and organization diversified revenue slightly and increased revenue from non-search engine deals. While these revenues don’t make up 10% of the total revenue yet, it highlights Mozilla’s determination to diversify income streams.
In 2016, less than $17 million U.S. Dollar out of the total unrestricted revenue and support of $520 million U.S. Dollar came from non-royalty deals; about 3.2% of the total revenue.
Now You: What is your take on the 2017 financial report and Mozilla’s financials?