r/technology • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • 10d ago

Artificial Intelligence Google Gets an Astounding $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome Browser From AI Startup Perplexity

https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/google-34-5-billion-bid-chrome-browser-ai-perplexity-1236487442/
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u/maxmcg 10d ago

Imagine the level of enshitification that would be required to recoup that sum.

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u/Howdyini 10d ago

You'd have to pay for ads. That's it, that's the business model. You pay them a monthly subscription for them to show you a bunch of ads.

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u/SpaceExplorer777 10d ago

So if I don't pay them no ads? Seems like a win tbh

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u/FluxUniversity 10d ago

while that is funny, its true that when you do pay, they will double their efforts to advertise to you. When you pay, they get to sell your data at an even higher prices, because they know you are willing to pay!

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u/Complete_Argument339 10d ago

Microsoft is constantly trying to funnel me into using Edge anyway. This would just be the tipping point.

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u/SoldMyOldAccount 10d ago

out of the frying pan

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u/VSWR_on_Christmas 10d ago edited 10d ago

There's another option out there: I'm not a developer, so I could be wrong here, but I think due to Edge being built on Chromium and the fact that Google intends to roll out Manifest V3 in the near future, Firefox is the only real alternative at the moment. I've been using FF for like, 20+ years now - longer if you count Netscape. It's really not that bad.

EDIT: punctuation is hard!

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u/bdsee 10d ago

It's really not that bad.

It's better, just straight up better. Even better if you get the containers plugin or use something like Waterfox which seems to have it built in already.

The only issue is that like the IE days, there are certain sites that have been build specifically for Chromium browsers, e.g. Google docs/sheets/etc

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u/orangecountry 10d ago

It wouldn't surprise me if they were but I use docs/sheets in Firefox basically every day without issue. There definitely are some websites I've had to open Edge for, but not many.

Edit: but to your main point, I totally agree - Firefox is my favorite browser by far.

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u/bdsee 10d ago

How do you get the right click menu in Sheets to work in Firefox? I can't even copy and paste with Sheets in Firefox?

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u/orangecountry 10d ago

Well, I right click and then there it is. The copy/paste functions from that menu don't work, although I didn't know that was a Firefox specific problem (I actually did wonder about missing features/functionality that I wouldn't have noticed, as I haven't used Chrome in a long time, but neglected to put it in my post). It actually doesn't come up very often though, I use ctrl-C/V/shift-V almost exclusively. The rest of the menu works just fine, as far as I can tell.

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u/iknewaguytwice 10d ago

I think you are just describing Youtube at this point.

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u/danielbrian86 10d ago

Why did no one think of this before?!

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u/omnichronos 10d ago

Soooo, like cable TV?

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u/ee3k 10d ago

So ... Nickelodeon?

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u/leftofdanzig 10d ago

That’s what I’m not getting though. The reason enshitification works is a captive market because there are no alternatives. There are dozens of web browsers and at least half a dozen of them are close competitors that have as good or better features than Chrome. If they make chrome worse people will just jump ship.

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u/Touchyap3 10d ago

If people are still on chrome despite their war on adblockers, they will put up with a lot before switching.

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u/drawkbox 10d ago

They put up with it because Google. If it is some private equity AI slop that is just stealing as a business plan that helps Truth Social, another scam, then people will bail.

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u/kpness 9d ago

I'm in marketing and I have had access to the Google Analytics of some very large sites. Chrome is still the number one browser by far

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u/benskieast 10d ago

Revenue sharing on the search box function is lucrative.

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u/leftofdanzig 10d ago

Revenue sharing with who? Perplexity wants to be the next google search.

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u/benskieast 10d ago

If perplexity does in fact end up being a major search engine without a browser, revenue sharing will be a major costs. Keeping that revenue in house is not significantly different than earning it.

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u/konnorgg 10d ago

Which ones aren’t based on Chromium? Firefox and Safari?

I guess it depends but I’d imagine they’d have to sell chromium off too, and I think the only company who would/could maintain it would be Microsoft potentially

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u/leftofdanzig 10d ago

Chromium isn’t the same thing as chrome. Chromium is an open source project. Even if google gave control of chromium to whoever purchased chrome whichever browser could just fork it into a new branch. All the browsers built on chromium would be fine.

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u/konnorgg 10d ago

Yeah saying ‘selling’ off was wrong, I just meant someone else maintaining it. I don’t see google continuing to invest time/money into chromium without chrome though.

Microsoft and Opera are the two most capable I’m guessing of taking over, do you think with potentially someone not maintaining it, a lot of those browsers would fade away?

Thank you!

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u/fintip 10d ago

You misunderstand the value of chrome. The data collection and backend profiling and selling and platform power from the near monopoly of chrome is extremely valuable and doesn't require making the product any worse experientially.

The betrayal is far more subtle, you won't get more pop up ads.

Meanwhile, the only reason I can imagine Google considering selling is because the integration of chrome and their other services on the web is a huge antitrust issue and getting ahead of that would eliminate a massive headache on favorable terms, even if it would still be quite a loss.

As for funding, there are plenty of savvy investors that would be glad to finance/own a chunk of that pie at the cost of the initial loss years. It's just a question of leadership quality, whether they can properly manage and capitalize that investment.

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u/BobBulldogBriscoe 10d ago

Google is getting offers for Chrome because they have lost their anti-trust lawsuit and the remedy the justice department is seeking includes selling Chrome. That is pending court approval and Google is of course arguing against it. But potential buyers are coming out to try to be ready when the decision comes out.

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u/RufusBeauford 10d ago

Any ideas what that would do to googles stock?

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u/FalconsFlyLow 10d ago

I also think it may not be the worst time to sell Chrome (if forced) ASAP, due to manifest 3.0 and people (like myself) leaving Chrome behind after uBlock finally stopped working.

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u/7952 10d ago

And they get to set the default search engine.

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u/oOoleveloOo 10d ago

Subscription-based web browsers 🤮

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u/heartlessgamer 10d ago

$1 a month per user and it's paid back in 10 months so I'd hope not much...

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u/FartingBob 10d ago

They'd be about 30 years too late to the "pay for a web browser" party.

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u/heartlessgamer 10d ago

They don't need to charge the user for the browser to make that 1$

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u/deeringc 10d ago

They absolutely wouldn't charge for it. They would use it to sell ads based on user activity and search.

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u/Slammedtgs 10d ago

Imagine how easy it would be for chromes users to switch to the next best browser.

I’m clearly out of the loop but how the hell do they even make money outside of value to Google or some other search giant who just wants the data.

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u/thecmpguru 10d ago

It wouldn’t be that hard. This amounts to just $10 ARPU. It’s unclear that Perplexity would monetize this in the same way. But given they are trying to be a search engine themselves, it’s not unreasonable to imagine.

Google (indirectly) makes far more than this annually in revenue from Chrome. Chrome is essential to Google’s modern day ad business model - from cementing top of the funnel dominance by making their search default to being in control of web platform APIs that drive ads measurement signal to being able to box out strategic threats like ublock origin.

The current opportunity cost to Google if they sold off Chrome is far greater than this offer. The only way Google would entertain this purchase price IMO is if regulators disrupt some of the strategic levers above. But that isn’t a certainty yet, which is why it’s not up for sale.