The new rules imposed by the Digital Markets Act (DMA) are making web browsers happy. These have indeed seen their popularity grow in recent weeks.
One of the major objectives of the DMA was to reduce as much as possible the anti-competitive practices of digital giants, and therefore to leave more room for smaller players. This is why from now on, when launching a new smartphone, it is obligatory for manufacturers to display a list of browsers so that the user can make their choice, rather than imposing a default browser, such as Safari. for Apple. And the results are already there!
Happy alternative browsers
The DMA’s obligations have been in place since March 7, a little over a month now. And very quickly, some browsers, like Brave, announced that they were seeing the difference, with a sudden increase in the number of downloads of the browser on iOS. Indeed, the new DMA constraint also applies to smartphones built before March 7, in their case, the window offering multiple choices appears on Safari after downloading the iOS 17.4 update.
And all other small browsers had the same experience, according to Reuters. The Aloha browser, based in Cyprus, saw its number of users within the European Union increase by 250% in March. Same story with Opera, where, explains its vice-president Jan Standal: “ We are currently seeing a record number of users in the EU. » Vivaldi, Ecosia and DuckDuckgo all confirm the improvement.
Apple is currently the most affected
For the moment, it is in Apple’s iOS environment that this change is most visible. While previously, you had to delve into the settings to change browsers, the Cupertino company now displays in the 27 countries of the European Union a list of 11 browsers in addition to Safari that can be selected, a list which will be updated day once a year.
For its part, Google, which only builds a small fraction of Android devices with Pixels, has implemented the obligation on its own smartphones. Other Android phones will see this simplified ability to choose a browser arrive in the coming months. And you, are you still on your traditional browser?
Source : Reuters
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