How DuckDuckGo Makes a Profit Without Tracking Users

Gabriel Weinberg, founder and CEO of ‘ethical’ Google search engine rival DuckDuckGo, recently took part in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) for YCombinator’s Hacker News, during which he revealed that his business makes a healthy profit, while taking a cheeky swipe at Google’s user tracking.

Weinberg launched DuckDuckGo seven years ago through Hacker News (formerly known as Startup News), described as a hybrid search engine due to its use of a number of APIs and algorithms from other vendors.

“DuckDuckGo is actually profitable. It is a myth you need to track people to make money in web search,” Weinberg said. “Most of the money is still made without tracking people by showing you ads based on your keyword, i.e. type in ‘car’ and get a car ad.”

“These ads are lucrative because people have buying intent. All that tracking is for the rest of the internet without this search intent, and that’s why you’re tracked across the internet with these same ads.”

Weinberg later gave a glimpse into his plans for the future of his search engine, explaining, “There is a recent PEW study showing that 40% of people would prefer a no-tracking search experience. And yet a very small percentage of people have ever heard of DuckDuckGo. As a result, we think we have a lot of room to focus on making the product better and growing, and that is really our future plans in a nutshell.”

Thank you International Business Times for providing us with this information.