Ask the search engine Ecosia about “Paris to Prague” and flight booking websites dominate the results. Ecosia CEO Christian Kroll would like to offer more train options, which he believes is better for the environment. But because its results are licensed from Google and Microsoft's Bing, Ecosia has little control over what is shown. Kroll is ready for change.
Berlin-based Ecosia, which donates its profits to tree plantationand its Paris-based competitor Quant Announcing on Tuesday that they will be teaming up to develop an index of the web.
The for-profit joint venture, called European Search Perspective and based in Paris, could allow smaller companies and any others that decide to join in to reduce their reliance on Google and Bing and deliver better results. Let's take. missions of their companies And the tastes of the Europeans. “We can de-rank the results of unethical or unsustainable companies and rank good companies higher,” Kroll says of eco-minded Ecosia.
A small decline in licensing revenue won't hurt Microsoft or Google much, which have about 95 percent of the global search industry outside China. But at a time when services like ChatGPTT and TikTok already exist Redefining the way users search, Potentially smaller rivals becoming more attractive to users could force larger companies to accelerate their investments in regional upgrades.
Ownership of the European Search Perspective, or EUSP, will be divided equally between Ecosia and Quant, with Ecosia providing cash and data while Quant will supply the labour. The technical infrastructure will come from OVHCloud, which shares ownership with Quant. Ecosia has about 1 percent search market share in France and Germany and claims about 20 million users globally, while Quant reports about 6 million users.
For Ecosia and Quant, capturing more parts of the world beyond French and German-speaking users will require succeeding domestically and increasing revenue, which largely comes from running advertising. The challenge is clear. sale of ecosia, According to its disclosureThat's down 8 percent to €24.2 million in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2023. More accurate results to help promote a business are not guaranteed – ads are still provided by Microsoft and Google. Kroll says that's not going to change anytime soon.
Companies are willing to raise external funding for the EUSP and license its index to other companies, including companies that want to use the data to train AI systems. “We are bringing together the most experienced exploration engineers to build sovereign technology in Europe – specifically for the French and German language, and we are confident this will appeal to the investment community,” says Kroll.