From the “shocking but true” files:
Hundreds of millions of people have downloaded the open source Firefox web browser. You would think that if someone downloads the browser they would use it – but that’s not always the case. In fact according to Mozilla, 75 percent of users are not active after that initial download.
SHOCKING – isn’t it?
So Mozilla is trying to correct the problem with their new Impact Mozilla effort that is intended to help grow retention and usage of Firefox.
Retention marketing is one of Mozilla’s key challenges. Currently tens
of millions of Firefox users download the browser, but about 75% of
those users are not active after that initial download. How do we get
these past users back? And how do we keep future users active once
they’ve downloaded Firefox?
The answer to me is painfully obvious – IE is still installed by default on most of these users PCs and IE is still their default browser. The act of downloading Firefox alone does not mean that users have actually ‘switched’ to Firefox.
As well, users still click on http; links from within their email clients (often Outlook/Outlook Express) which will still open up IE by default (sure you can change the setting but who does that?).
The same basic anti-trust issues that led to the collapse of Netscape are still in play today. So long as IE is the default installed browser, Mozilla (though often downloaded) will always be a supplementary download and as such at risk from reduced usage.
