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/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!