Monetizing Firefox extensions

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Daniel Glazman Disruptive Innovations MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Numbers • ~ 900 million downloads of Firefox • > 7,000 Firefox extensions on addons.mozilla.org (~4,000 experimental) • all free, 600 million downloads in 2007... • only a handful generating revenue • example: PageSaverPro, $15 per copy MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 2

Monetizing Firefox Extensions iNumbers • ~15 million iPhones ? • more than 15,000 apps on App Store in 8 months • more than 500 million downloads in 8 months • a lot of commercial apps MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 3

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Geeks • Most of extension authors do that on spare time, have an unrelated job otherwise • Firefox extensions should attract more authors given the downloads metrics • Coolness factor is here but too hard to monetize MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 4

Monetizing Firefox Extensions QOTD “There are times where I wish I could turn Adblock Plus at least into a part-time job rather than struggling with ﬁnding time to do everything necessary. I know that some other extension developers have their extension as a full-time job and that makes them dependent on money sources. Given the market value of their user base, it is hard not to sell out.” -- Vladimir Palant MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 5

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Three models 1. free extension that serves a business model not based on software sales 2. add-on sales 3. add-on linking to extra software sales MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 6

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Issues • AMO is not a sales platform • no PayPal button or equivalent • Open Source philosophy (we do like it but it ﬁlls too rarely an individual’s wallet) • Firefox’s extension manager (if I look for “zoom”, I don’t even ﬁnd my glazoom ext) MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 7

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Sell Key factor: AMO should evolve at least a bit • sales platform or links to commercial web sites • possibly donation buttons in AMO and/or extension manager • better home page, a bit less visibility for “recommended” extensions, email subscriptions for new extension announcements, etc. • in short: way better than App Store... MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 8

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Numbers again, sorry... • One million people download Firefox every 22 hours... • How many of these do you need as customers to make a decent living with a $2 extension ? 0.00006 % !!!! MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 9

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Protect ? • Should you “protect” your extension? • Very difﬁcult to protect readable chrome JS • Complexity of c++ code but, hey, you’re a geek, aren’t you? No, unless... MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 10

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Example: FullerScreen • 310,000 downloads • free version and a “pro” one for $2 (i.e. nothing...) • ~$1.7 in author’s pocket (before taxes) • expectation is 3,000 sales = $5,100 for a month of fun work... Not that bad, eh? MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 11

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Appz & widgets • Use ﬁrefox as xulrunner... • AMO should host/link-to app packages too • Games (Khronos),Video effects (Paul...), ﬁlezilla, etc. MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 12

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Appz & widgets #2 • Crucial need for a license ID veriﬁcation system • Must be c++-based • Could be used for extensions too MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 13

Monetizing Firefox Extensions In the meantime • Ads, keywords and paid links in your add- on • Donation button in your add-on (average $7) MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 14

Monetizing Firefox Extensions Tentative summary • Nothing will ever replace time-to-market • Coolness factor does matter • AMO and Firefox extension manager not tailored for that at this time • But the browser becomes the global platform so the question is not if this will happen but when it will happen MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 15

Monetizing Firefox Extensions • QUESTIONS ? MAOW Berlin 28-mar-2009 -- Daniel Glazman 16

Monetizing Firefox extensions

by Daniel Glazman on Mar 30, 2009

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