Mozilla cutting 250 jobs after coronavirus pandemic cuts revenue

Mozilla is cutting 250 jobs because the coronavirus pandemic cut the Firefox maker’s revenue, Chief Executive Mitchell Baker said Tuesday. The cut will mean Mozilla will reduce spending in areas like expanding the abilities of the web and improving tools for developers.

“Economic conditions resulting from the global pandemic have significantly impacted our revenue. As a result, our pre-COVID plan was no longer workable,” Baker said in a statement. “I desperately wish there was some other way to set Mozilla up for long term success in building a better internet.”

Mozilla will make other changes during the cut, Baker said. It’s trying to become more experimental, moving faster to try new technology ideas. It’s trying to advance internet technology beyond just the web, its core area since its founding as a browser maker more than 20 years ago. And it’s working to embrace internet technology that people actually pay for, part of a movement that’s reckoning with drawbacks of free but advertising supported online services.

Firefox is Mozilla’s most important product and revenue source, since searches performed in the browser can generate ad revenue from business partners like Google. But Firefox usage is steadily dwindling, down from about 300 million monthly users in 2017 to to 210 million today. A January layoff at Mozilla already cut about 70 jobs, reducing the organization’s employee count to about 1,000.

Firefox has been key to Mozilla’s mission to keep the internet a technology that’s open, private, and not in the thrall of technology giants. But Mozilla’s leverage over the web has declined as Firefox usage declines, Apple prohibits anyone else from using their own core browser technology on iPhones and iPads, and Google Chrome continues its ascent. Chrome, dominant with 66 percent of browser usage according to analytics firm StatCounter, is the default browser on Android.