Mozilla Firefox announced its decision to cut job of 250 employees and shut its operations in Taiwan.
Microsoft Edge has surpassed Firefox to take the second position in the global browser market, according to latest data from NetMarketShare.
Google Chrome with over 71 percent share dominated the browser market in July. The Chromium-based Edge browser grabbed 8.09 percent market share, slightly ahead of 7.36 percent share of Firefox in July.
The Mountain View, California-based company said that it will be smaller. “This is a time of change for the internet and for Mozilla. The significant restructuring will strengthen our ability to build and invest in products and services that will give people alternatives to conventional Big Tech,” Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker said in a statement.
According to media reports, the company laid off nearly 70 employees in January which were pre-Covid times. Mozilla Firefox CEO acknowledged that the economic conditions resulting from the global pandemic have significantly impacted its revenue.
Mitchell Baker said those losing their jobs will get severance pay. Mozilla is the maker of open-source browser Firefox.
In October 2018, Mozilla started testing a VPN subscription service that was made available to only a small group of users who were allowed to subscribe through Firefox, paying $10 per month for access to ProtonVPN.
“Mozilla is a technical powerhouse of the internet activist movement. And we must stay that way. We must provide leadership, test out products, and draw businesses into areas that aren’t traditional web technology,” Mitchell Baker said.
