What is the single most thing that people cannot live without these days? It’s their mobile phone. Mobile phones or smartphones have become such an integral part of people’s lives. People are using mobile phones for everything. Just recall how many times you must have used from morning till now. You will see how much you are using your smartphones and for what purpose. Before a decade most people only used cell phones to make calls or send an SMS. But today smartphones can do almost anything that a computer can do. With each passing day, you get new models of smartphones. These days smartphones are mostly being used to do other things apart from making or taking calls. People are using their cell phones either to go through their social media accounts or search for the information they want. There is something here many people don’t realize About
See, you are using these social media platforms or search engines for free. But have you ever wondered how they are making money if they provide their services free of cost? Many people by now have come to know that these platforms make money through advertisements which does not seem like a big deal when you hear about it. Because what is making money by showing ads right? No, it is not about showing ads. It is about the strategies they are using to show ads that you should be worried about. All the social media websites especially search engines like Google are tracking each and every action of yours. This will allow them to come up with algorithms that can predict your actions. Tracking every action means there is no privacy on the internet. This is where companies like Duckduckgo come into the picture to safeguard your privacy.
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What is Duckduckgo?
Duckduckgo is just another search engine like Google or Yahoo. But the only difference is that they do not track the activities of their users. This company which was established in 2008 is a search engine that provides internet privacy. It aims to become Google that does not track each and every step of the user. Duckduckgo was founded by Gabriel Weinberg sold his previous company NamesDatabase to Classmates.com. He got $10 million dollars which were enough to fund his next venture which is Duckduckgo. The main aim of Duckduckgo is to make the internet a safe space for people. Seeing this Union Square Ventures funded it because they knew that the future of search engines was dependent on the privacy they provide. After a few years, Duckduckgo became a profitable organization but the problem is that it did not earn anywhere near what Google earns.
This is very unfortunate for a company with good intentions. Because the big companies like Google, Facebook, and many others have been accused of leaking the private data of the users to other companies. This is not a new practice by these companies as they have been doing this for a long time. Most people who follow news might have seen the news about CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg and Sudar Pichai being summoned by the courts on accusations of selling private data of the users. They say that they need to track data to ensure their users get great user experience. But this is far from the truth. Duckduckgo knows that such actions are unethical and unforgivable. So they make sure that they don’t track any information even after having 22 billion searches under their belt. Then how does it generate revenue? Its business model might give the answer.
Business model of Duckduckgo
As mentioned earlier, Duckduckgo became a profitable organization in 2014. The best thing is that it did this without storing or sharing a single piece of information of users. All of your information is strictly confidential and it is kept private even from the company. All the search engines and social media platforms make people believe that they are offering you a product that is not true. The truth is that the product is you. You are being offered as a product to the advertisers by these platforms. This is the business model that is completely opposite to that of Duckduckgo. Duckduckgo prides itself on being a search engine that provides internet searches without storing information. The thing that is offered by Duckduckgo is not the search engine but the privacy that comes with it. It allows you to be in control of all your private information online.
The main source of the business of Duckduckgo is definitely its search engine and it is always going to be that way. However, they have understood that it is not enough to survive in the market against competitors like Google which are global giants when it comes to search engines. So they have come up with new ways to reach out to more people. The first thing they have done is to create their own application and made them available to the public through Google Play Store and Apple iTunes. Not only that it has also created a Google Chrome extension to make it more convenient for people to use it. So if you don’t want to use their search engine you can simply add an extension to Google Chrome. It also offers a free API that can be used for public use after they give approval through an email.
The difference between Google and Duckduckgo
By looking at how these two search engines work you might understand the differences between them. It will help you understand why it is important to use Duckduckgo. Let’s look at what happens when you search for a query on Google and Duckduckgo.
Searching query on Google
When you search a query on Google you will get search results. In those search results, you will also find ads. They show ads that are relevant to you based on the keywords you used. But this is not the only thing they do. Once you search for a query Google stores the query and keywords you used. If you searched for a product then it will use these keywords to show the advertisements of the product even after you are done with your search. Not only that it starts showing you the advertisements of similar products on its other platforms like YouTube. If you click on any of the search results it will allow the website to store your digital identity. By using these identities like IP addresses the websites will have complete information about.
They will know who you are, what you searched for, and which device you used to search the query. Not only that they will know your exact location and time the query was searched. This will give them all the information to create algorithms that will help them in making you click their website again. If you have ever seen an ad pop up about a particular product after you have just discussed it with your friend or colleague then understand that Google has been tracking you. They are even using your microphones in your cell phones to track information.
Searching query on Duckduckgo
It is completely opposite when you search for a query on Duckduckgo. When you search something on Duckduckgo it also provides search results along with advertisements. Duckduckgo also does this depending on the keywords you used but the only difference is that it does not store your query. Once you get search results and ads for your query Duckduckgo will have no information about it. If you click on a website even it could not track your actions. This is because Duckduckgo does not allow them to get your real identity. It encrypts the information of users so that these websites do not track the activities of the user afterward. This might make you wonder how Duckduckgo generates income. Let’s take a look at it.
How does Duckduckgo make money?
All of the search engines make money through advertisements and Duckduckgo also generates its revenue by showing advertisements. As mentioned earlier, it shows you the advertisements depending on the keywords you used in your queries. This is something that search engines have to do if you want to use them for free. Search engines let you use them for free because the advertisers are paying them. Most of the search engines also make money by selling your data. But Duckduckgo is different. It makes sure that the other websites do not track you. Duckduckgo does this by not storing your search results or history.
Every time you use Duckduckgo it’s like you are using it for the first time. It only shows you ads based on keywords and it does not show you targeted ads. If you search for shoes you will get ads without saving the search history. It also generates income by being a non- tracking affiliate of companies like Amazon and eBay.
Conclusion
This is the business model of Duckduckgo and the way it generates revenue. Its business model is an advertising business model. But Duckduckgo is much more than that. It offers internet privacy in a world where privacy on the internet is a myth. This way of doing business is quite different from others. If you want to know about the business models of other companies like Deliveroo and ProductHunt then check out those articles.
