Firefox increased its market share in Europe thanks to Digital Markets Act

Why it matters: Since November 2022, Europe's digital economy has operated under the regulations of the Digital Markets Act. The law requires major mobile ecosystems to implement a browser ballot, which Mozilla believes will benefit user choice and market competition.

The browser choice screens enforced by the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) are having a noticeable impact on Firefox's ability to compete in the internet browser sector. According to a recent Mozilla post, the new regulatory framework helped the open-source browser increase its daily active users in two of Europe's biggest countries.

The DMA covers several digital services, including browsers. Mozilla feels that the most empowering aspect of the DMA is the control it gives European users. Instead of being forced into a default engine, they can choose their desired browser. Mozilla Foundation researchers discovered that browser choice screens are powerful tools when well-designed and fully implemented.

People prefer choices in any market. Mozilla found this especially true for personal devices like smartphones or other mobile gadgets. After the first DMA-derived browser choice screens started rolling out in 2024 for the iOS ecosystem, Firefox's daily active users increased in Germany and France by 99 percent and 111 percent, respectively.

Mozilla noted that browser selection screens currently available on iOS and Android are a much-improved feature for mobile users. Starting in March 2024, new and existing Android users started getting prompts asking if they would like to stay with the factory default (Chrome) or switch to an alternative. More recently, new and existing iOS users with Safari as their default browser got similar choice dialogs after upgrading to iOS 18.2.

It's worth mentioning that Apple had implemented a browser default prompt with iOS 17.4. However, it was poorly designed. Of course, mobile and PC users outside the EU haven't received such features and likely won't anytime soon. Mozilla also said that Firefox was able to win new users thanks to some of its advanced features, which include enhanced privacy controls, performance gain, and new productivity tools.

Mozilla warned that Big Tech gatekeepers could hinder the DMA's ability to reach its full potential because some companies still lack proper compliance plans. However, despite its imperfect state, the new digital market regulations gave Firefox's European userbase a noticeable boost in just one year.