Since March 7, the DMA (Digital Markets Act) has forced companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft to allow European users to easily choose their default web browser. This measure has opened up new opportunities for lesser-known browsers, which are beginning to reap the benefits of this expanded competition.
Reuters provides the example of Aloha Browser, a browser based in Cyprus which reported a spectacular 250% increase in the number of users in the EU in the month of March alone. With its privacy-focused model, Aloha Browser is becoming a go-to alternative for many privacy-conscious users.
Other players, such as Vivaldi and DuckDuckGo, have also benefited from this new regulation. Vivaldi, a Norwegian company, saw a notable increase in its users in Europe, while DuckDuckGo, based in the United States, continued to see steady growth in its user numbers.
While these results are encouraging, some of these companies have expressed concerns about deploying premium screens on mobile devices. Mozilla, for example, pointed out that only 19% of European iPhone users have seen the list of browsers, raising questions about the actual accessibility of alternatives to the default browsers. This allows us to put into perspective the figures from browsers such as Opera, which highlighted at the end of March that its iOS version had “particularly well distinguished, and particularly in France, where the number of new daily users has increased by 5, or + 402%”… without specifying the number of mobile users thus multiplied.
In response to these concerns, Google plans to expand the rollout of Choice Screens on new Android devices made by other manufacturers. For its part, Apple has promised to display up to 11 browsers in addition to Safari in the choice screens available for each EU country, which does not prevent it from being the subject of an investigation by the European Commission on the application of current legislation.