Two emerging search engines are teaming up to compete with Google
Ask search engine Ecosia about “Paris to Prague” and airline booking sites dominate the results. Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll wants to offer more training options that he believes are better for the environment. But because its results are licensed from Google and Microsoft’s Bing, Ecosia has little control over what is displayed. Kroll is ready to change that.
Ecosia is headquartered in Berlin, Donate your profits to plant treesand it Competitor Qwant is based in Paris is announcing Tuesday that it will work together to develop an index of the site.
The for-profit venture, named European Search Perspective and headquartered in Paris, could enable small companies and any other companies that decide to participate to reduce their dependence on Google and Bing and provide Provides more consistent results their company’s mission and European tastes. “We can rank the results of unethical or unsustainable companies and rank good companies higher,” Kroll said of eco-conscious Ecosia.
Losing a little licensing revenue won’t hurt Microsoft or Google much, which own about 95% of the global search industry outside of China. But at the moment services like ChatGPT and TikTok are ready redefine how users search, Smaller players are likely to become more attractive to users which could force larger companies to accelerate investments in regional upgrades.
Ownership of European Search Perspective, or EUSP, will be split equally between Ecosia and Qwant, with Ecosia providing cash and data while Qwant provides labor. The technical infrastructure will come from OVHcloud, which shares ownership with Qwant. Ecosia has about 1 percent search market share in France and Germany and claims to have about 20 million users globally, while Qwant reports about 6 million users.
For Ecosia and Qwant, reaching more of the world beyond French- and German-speaking users will require success at home and increased revenue, much of which comes from running ads. The challenge is obvious. Ecosia’s sales according to its disclosuredown 8% to 24.2 million euros in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2023. More accurate results to help drive business are not guaranteed—advertising is still provided by Microsoft and Google grant. Kroll says that will soon change.
Companies are willing to raise external funding for EUSP and license its index to other companies, including those that want to use the data to train AI systems. “We are bringing together the most experienced search engineers to build sovereign technology in Europe—especially French and German, and we are extremely confident that this will attract attract the investment community”.
