The Mozilla Foundation, the non-profit behind the Firefox browser, is one of the most prominent examples of an alt-tech startup successfully challenging Big Tech by embracing a free and open internet.
Mozilla launched Firefox in 2004, embraced the open web standards that Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer browser was ignoring, and gained significant browser market share from the tech giant.
Yet despite finding early success by embracing a free and open internet, Mozilla is now a shadow of its former self with Firefox's share of the browser market declining by more than 88% since its peak, the Mozilla Foundation relying heavily on the tech giant Google for its revenue, and the company increasingly voicing its support of censorship.
Before the Mozilla Organization was formed, a spat between the tech giant Microsoft and Netscape, the company behind the Netscape Navigator browser, set the stage for the coming browser battle between Internet Explorer and Firefox.
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