Has anyone built a browser?

[artsub]

Hi,

I know I will be lucky if I can get this answered, because it's not the sort of thing that a lot of people do... but here goes.

I want to build and monetize a browser. I understand how it is monetized, but what I want to know is how much I can expect to earn per user per month. Obviously it will vary wildly user to user, but if you had say 100,000 users, what would be the average?

Cheers

[tommygunn]

Hi artsub,

This is a interesting question (in a good way). I'm going to ask a few questions to get to the root of what your talking about. You talking about a real ground up web browser? Or are you talking about a pseudo browser that is just built off of IE type thing? Or even more like an existing browser plugin?

Then how do you intend to monetize off of it? Catching errors and directing them to a search.

Thanks!

[artsub]

Hi TommyGun,

It won't be ground up, I will base it off the Mozilla engine, but it will be a browser, not a plugin. And the fact that you need to ask how to monetize it kind of tells me you won't know how much I will earn per user, but I will let you know how browsers are monetized anyway (and this is how all browser make most of their money... no, they do not just build them because they are nice guys).

Whenever you do a search through the toolbar, if you click a sponsored link, that is their adsense basically.

[tommygunn]

On the contrary, you pointed out a new opportunity, as a programmer of course I was interested, and did my research. However, Mozilla is a non-profit, even though they make a ton of money from Google. Mozilla only makes money from people searching when people keep their homepage the default one.

Mozilla Firefox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All the information you need to figure it out is available. You just have to do the math .

[Rob Whisonant]

The question is really HOW will you get people to use your browser. What are you going to give them that IE, Firefox etc. will NOT give them?

Back in the BBS days when they first started offering Internet access it was easy to create a browser and get people to use them. I created several then.

BUT NOW... What are you going to bribe people with to use your browser over any of the tried and true free ones already available?

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[artsub]

Tommygun - I know they say Mozilla is non-profit, but you will find that Firefox makes a very tidy profit. Infact, the figures are a matter for public record... in 2008 they made... i forget the exact figure, you can Google it, but it was over $70 million, and 88% of it came from Google... so they do make money the way I described.

Rob - Your question might be HOW to get people to use it, but that I have sorted... but it is only worth doing if I know it is profitable. Before you ask how i am going to get people to use it, I'm afraid it's a bit of a secret... but in 6 months time or so when you see a browser making a big splash doing something that no other browser has ever done, you can think back to this forum post

[Rob Whisonant]

artsub,

Since you can't provide the information needed to receive an educated answer, nobody will be able to tell you if it will be profitable or not without a crystal ball.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[mywebwork]

Originally Posted by artsub

I want to build and monetize a browser. I understand how it is monetized

Any chance you could explain how it is monetized? I think it's a valid question, as IE, Firefox, Opera, Safari & Chrome are all free downloads. Other than advertising revenue I don't see an obvious way to make money from a browser - obviously you have something in mind. Care to share with your fellow Warriors?

I want to know is how much I can expect to earn per user per month. Obviously it will vary wildly user to user, but if you had say 100,000 users, what would be the average?

Again not knowing the revenue model it isn't a question that's easy to answer. But I was actually more interested in how you planned to get 100,000 users? You must have one massive mailing list!

Question - does the world really need another browser? I suppose its possible - Chrome was a welcome addition to the browser family despite its similarity to Safari. As a web application developer I cringe at the thought of yet another browser (with all of its idiosyncrasies) to support!

For the record I've only built the IE-based custom browsers that you can put together with Visual Studio.

Best of luck with your project, I'll keep my eye out for it!

Bill

[artsub]

Hi Rob and MyWebWork,

I am not hinding the revenue model, I mentioned that in my second post... it's the same as all the other browsers revenue model. When someone does a google search from the toolbar, the sponsored listing will be my adsense, so every time someone clicks on one, I get paid. This is all the info you would need to answer the origional question of how much it would make per user... you don't need a "crystal ball", you just need past experience (hence the topic of the post).

As for "How I planned to get 100,000 users"... I don't.... I plan to get a lot more than that. But seriously, it is really a unique marketing method, and if I shared it before I did it, 20 people would get to market before me and I wouldn't be near as effective. I am all for sharing information, but I intend to invest an aweful lot into this project, and that would just be stupid.

As for "Does the world need another browser", I have 2 answers. First of all, if you only ever released a product that had no or very little competition, no one would ever release anything. Name me one product on the net, either software or info product (or anything else for that matter) where there is very little competition. Here is the thing... if you actually thought of one and named it, people would read the post and there would be massive competition very quickly. Because others have done it is not a reason not to do it.

Aside from that, you are happy with your browser because you don't know any better. People were happy with black and white TVs before color came along, and right now we are happy with 2D TVs... does the world need another brand of TV? Well I guess it depends what the next TV can offer.

[Rob Whisonant]

Expected revenue = number of users X average number of toolbar searches per user X average adsense click revenue

You can estimate the first and third element. It's the second one that is the problem.

You need to figure out how to estimate the average number of toolbar searches per user.

Now from my viewing experience of people surfing. Most seem to go to google instead of just typing in the search in the toolbar. Why? Not really sure. I have a google search box on my toolbar and I even still just jump over to google.

Re's
Rob Whisonant

[artsub]

Hi Rob,

Personally I usually just type it straight into the address bar (does the same thing). But you are right, it is hard to know how many many people do what. Even if you knew for example it was 50/50 (which is as good a guess as any), you still don't know how many searches the average person does in a month.

Also, you mentioned the 1st and 3rd element are easy enough to estimate... I would have thought that the average adsense click revenue is the hardest of all to estimate. Who would have any idea about that?

[ReDDs]

Firefox is open source so you could always take the source code and make it your own?

[Andy Fletcher]

What's the question exactly?

You know how to make it. You know how to get way more than 100,000 people to use it. You know how to monetize it.

But the point of the thread is? Sorry, I'm interested in the topic but a bit lost.

Andy

[HomeBizNizz]

Maybe find a readymade browswer module...?
Golden Cash Compass has one built in, I see.

[mgkimsal]

Originally Posted by Andy Fletcher

What's the question exactly?

You know how to make it. You know how to get way more than 100,000 people to use it. You know how to monetize it.

But the point of the thread is? Sorry, I'm interested in the topic but a bit lost.

Andy

The OQ was how much money could be expected to be made if there was a 100,000 users of the browser.

Consider that firefox has close to 300,000,000 users - Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more: firefox at 270 million users

They made 70,000,000.

Each FF user brings in less than $1 year.

Really off the cuff math, I know, but that's my guess.

If the OP has some other way to monetize, obviously that number would go out the window.

[artsub]

Hey mgkimsal - This seems to happen a lot... you ask a question, and with 13 posts, not one of those posts are an attempts to answer it! At least you had a crack... but I think it might be a bit flawed. First up, that 300 million users... You will see a different number on every website you go to. Then... even if you knew how many downloads there was, not all of these people would be actually using it. For example, I have downloaded Chrome and IE8 (and some others), but I only use FF.

What i was really hoping for (ambitiously I know) was that someone would jump on and say "I have build a browser, and I make on average $3 (or whatever) per user per month".

[banks]

Originally Posted by artsub

What i was really hoping for (ambitiously I know) was that someone would jump on and say "I have build a browser, and I make on average $3 (or whatever) per user per month".

There is a browser in ScrapeBox, screenshot

But the money for the tool doesn't come because of just the browser. As for how much you "could" make, it would depend what sort of audience you pitch it to.

If you made a shopping browser for instance, secure with many timesaving features for browsing the major stores for the best prices and things like that and pitched it to the right crowd that shop online you could make a tidy sum.

[HomeBizNizz]

Superhot tip:
Make the browser filled with links to usefull money making info websites, blogs, forums (and posts within those) and you'll see. People are lasy and a linkfilled browser will get them off the butts faster than if they had to dig for the links on the net themselves.

Browser modules ready to use as far as I know is:
Gecko engine, used in K-Meleon and Galeon.

[Jeff Henshaw]

What i was really hoping for (ambitiously I know) was that someone would jump on and say "I have build a browser, and I make on average $3 (or whatever) per user per month".

Many years ago there was plenty of software around that allowed even a part time amateur programmer like I was, to create their own browser. Of course, the monetization was not an issue then - oh! perhaps if I had only known these things back then

I created a few browsers, only for my own use and they were as fast as greased lightening. Probably because they only contained the specific features and functionality that I needed.

The problem was - they were all vulnerable to attack from the growing number of spoilers, malware and hackers. Even when using a firewall, software or hardware (router) firewall, I seemed to have problems. So I ended up going back to one or other of the 'factory' browsers such as IE - which is one that I very rarely use these days by the way.

I am not trying to teach granny to suck eggs here, as I am sure that you would not have even started this thread, had you not researched and thought this through. In my humble opinion however, if you do intend to create your own "browser" in whatever form, keep the security issue firmly in mind.

Remember, if someone uses your browser and their computer gets infected and they suffer financial loss, you can bet your sweet life that they (and their lawyers) will be coming after you.

It would be wise to provide regular maintenance and upgrades, in order to avoid such problems - another potential way to monetize your browser by the way

Just my thoughts and good luck with your project.

Regards,
Jeff.

[jimbo999]

I haven't created my own browser, but you may find this helpful..
The amount you make per user is completely dependent upon what type of person that you are pushing your browser at. I tried finding the data for you, but I came up empty. I've seen it before so I know that it is out there. For instance:
Those with college degrees are more likely to click on organic searches over those without.
Females are more likely to click on sponsored searches than males.

I think you get the idea. Pushing your browser at a tech savvy crowed will most likely yield you low results. If you are marketing a browser to senior citizens, then cha-ching!! Actually that is a good idea.. If I had the knowledge to program a browser I would probably do it. Just copy FF as is, make the default text size 3 times larger than normal and market to seniors.