Mozilla revenue rose by over $40 million USD in 2017 which sounds good until you notice that its expenses went up by over $80 million.

Mozilla has filed its accounts for the financial year ended December 31st, 2017 and published them along with its annual report, The State of Mozilla 2017.

Mozilla's main source of income is the royalties received from companies like Google and Yandex for including their search engines in Firefox and it is good to see that this has increased, even if it by a modest 7%. "Contributions", which I assume means donations are up by 25% but at $6.4 million the category is still only 1% of "Total unrestricted revenue and support". "Subscriptions and advertising revenue" was a new source of income in 2017 but raised the paltry amount of $2.6 million.  The major expense, software development, rose by around 10% and it was branding and marketing that saw the biggest percentage increase, almost 40%, but remember that 2017 saw the relaunch of Mozilla's browser with Firefox Quantum. 

Why you might be asking are we covering this when we don't normally report on financial results? The answer is clearly expressed elsewhere in the The State of Mozilla 2017 report - Mozilla is unique.

The report explains that Mozilla consists of two organizations, the Mozilla Foundation - which supports other open source projects with grants  - and the Mozilla Corporation, which, according to the report:

creates products, advances public policy and explores new technologies that give people more control over their lives online, and shapes the future of the internet platform for the public good.

These two organization have separate boards of directors and work in concert with each other and a global community of tens of thousands of volunteers.

The report continues:

Because of its unique structure, Mozilla stands apart from its peers in the technology and social enterprise sectors globally as one of the most impactful and successful social enterprises in the world.

Mozilla is unique in the way it works with to ensure the internet is a global public resource, open and accessible to all. We all benefit from the role that it has assumed to give consumers choices and build a healthier internet. Mozilla is also looking to developing new ways to bring policy, technology and committed people to impact issues from misinformation to the surveillance economy and manipulation of people through use of our personal information and behavioral profiles.

Mozilla remaining financially secure is in all our interests. 

More Information

State of Mozilla 2017 report

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