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Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

(blog.truestar.pro)
406 points doppio19 | 4 comments | 01 Jul 25 20:26 UTC | HN request time: 0.966s | source
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bentcorner ◴[01 Jul 25 23:32 UTC] No.44438912[source]▶
> Mozilla couldn't find a sustainable business model for Fakespot despite its popularity

I don't know if it's fair for me to armchair quarterback, but still - what was their business model when they decided to do the acquisition? From the outside looking in barely did anything whatsoever.

I browse Amazon using Firefox extremely often and I don't recall seeing any helper UI pop up. Even so, what would have been their strategy to monetize me? User data? Commissions? Some kind of Mozilla+ subscription?

I love FF and cheer Mozilla on where I can, but honestly these decisions are inscrutable.

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1. bjord ◴[02 Jul 25 09:47 UTC] No.44441772[source]▶
I don't actually think there was (or needed to be) one...keep in mind they're a non-profit. I think they just wanted to make the internet a safer place, but semi-extraneous (particularly unprofitable) projects sadly need to be cut aggressively with the rising threat of the google antitrust suit, as they may lose most of their income.
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2. okanat ◴[02 Jul 25 10:45 UTC] No.44442100[source]▶
Mozilla Corp is a for profit organization owned by a non-profit foundation.
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3. bjord ◴[02 Jul 25 13:09 UTC] No.44443305[source]▶
That doesn't necessarily change the overall mission of the organization, but definitely does give them more flexibility to offer paid options to help sustain development, should they see an opening in the future.

This is more or less taken directly from Thunderbird's website (which I think is a fair comparison): "Thunderbird operates in a separate, for-profit subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation. This structure gives us the flexibility to offer optional paid services to sustain Thunderbird’s development far into the future."

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-GB/about/

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4. ◴[02 Jul 25 17:08 UTC] No.44446192{3}[source]▶