Techcrunch is reporting that China-based web browser Maxthon has sold a minority stake to Google, rumored to be around $1 million. More importantly Techcrunch is "also hearing that this investment is part of a ‚Äúmuch larger strategic deal‚Ä? between the two companies." Maxthon is a powerful tabbed, fully customizable and 100% free Internet browser built on top of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) platform.
Read/WriteWeb has covered Maxthon a few times and frankly, this news of Google cozying up to Maxthon comes as no surprise to me. For one thing, as Gang Lu first reported for R/WW at the beginning of the year, Maxthon reportedly has 30% of the browser market in its home country of China, second only to IE and ahead of Firefox. In a follow-up R/WW post in mid-January, we noted that Maxthon is probably more of a threat to Firefox than it is to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Which makes this news that Google has possibly partnered with Maxthon very intriguing. Google already has a very cuddly relationship with Mozilla and recently we've noted here how Firefox's developments (e.g. offline browsing, being an information broker) will turn out to be very favourable to Google long-term. Those Firefox developments literally play to Google's strengths - as they enhance the functionality of web apps. So for Google to now turn its amorous attentions to Maxthon, will likely cause a little pique in the Mozilla camp. Who is this Microsoft-based upstart, eyeing up my Google? (Mozilla will be saying)
However there are striking similarities between Firefox and Maxthon. Both have strong developer support and are grass roots movements. What is particularly attractive about Maxthon though, for Google, is its global presence - particularly in China. As we mentioned before, Maxthon is the only Chinese Internet Software company with a global presence. So with its success in China and the impressive features in Maxthon 2.0, Maxthon is ready for the worldwide market. They are growing very fast globally, especially in the US, and a lot of the new users are young. All of this is probably very enticing to Google, which wants a global presence, strong developer support, and more young users. Not to mention that the default search engine right now in Maxthon is Yahoo, which will no doubt change to Google with this deal.
For a history of Maxthon and details on its features, see Gang Lu's January post. For our analysis of why Maxthon is threatening to Firefox, see our follow-up post.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2118
Comments
Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all Read/WriteWeb posts
Isn't this as simple as Google getting close to the browser with the second biggest share in what will become the biggest market in the world? Seems like a good move and not something Firefox needs to be concerned about, except in so far as it impacts them in China.
I know that Maxthon has its fans but is it really a threat to Firefox outside of China? I doubt it.
Posted by: Charles | April 10, 2007 4:48 AM
I'd be rather annoyed if Google or any other Corp would be able to buy itself into Firefox like that :-)
Posted by: Jens Kraemer | April 10, 2007 4:52 AM
Why did they have to buy a stake in something built on Trident? Ugh. Do we really need more IE-based browsers mucking up the www?
While I know Google has been trying to make the inroads to China wider, they could have at least chosen a browser with a Gecko foundation.
Posted by: Stephen Glauser | April 10, 2007 5:03 AM
Word Charles - plus the name Maxthon doesn't sound half as cool as Firefox :-)
Posted by: Paul Burgess | April 10, 2007 5:04 AM
Why would u say that Maxthon is the ONLY Chinese Internet software Company with a global presence? Are we that bad and isolated?
The fact is back two or three years Maxthon used to be a domain explorer in China, it cames with the tab idea first and became almost like the software u must have when setup a computer. But in recent years, the situation got complicated and competitors enter the same market here.It still has its influence, but not as much as u think. And yet, Maxthon is based on IE but firefox is completely another story.
Here is another post from Yee the blogger talking about this:
http://ya.iyee.cn/2007/04/google-invest-maxthon-browser.html
Check it out.
Posted by: huahua | April 10, 2007 6:33 AM
Is Maxthon going to be so long awated G-browser?
Posted by: Sziget | April 10, 2007 6:44 AM
@Sziget
No. It doesn't make sense for Google to develop a browser. That would minimize choice. Google is based on choice, and they know that.
GBrowser is nothing to be awaited.
@Stephen Glauser
Google's decisions are based on how to increase their marketshare, not on how to support a religious war between Microsoft and Mozilla.
Anyways, Gecko-support for Maxthon is under way, they announced that a lot of time ago on their blog. Ok, there haven't been any results yet, but I would expect that after Maxthon 2.0 has been released. (They will have more times for things like that when the new version is out.)
Posted by: Sebastian Moser | April 10, 2007 3:49 PM
Gang Lu first reported for R/WW at the beginning of the year, Maxthon reportedly has 30% of the browser market in its home country of China, second only to IE and ahead of Firefox.
It may be true that Maxthon second only to IE,but no authority source can certify its market share.
According to my experience,Tencent Traveler (QQ) is almost a standard Web Browser in every internet cafe,hence I guess in the near feature,Tencent Traveler is possible to beat Maxthon in China.
Posted by: yee | April 11, 2007 2:03 AM
update:Maxthon founder Bloodchen denied this canard!
http://ya.iyee.cn/2007/04/maxthon-foundergoogle-dont-own-our.html
Posted by: yee | April 11, 2007 2:44 AM
hello there yee:D
Anyway this is a small bid, hopefully Google(China) didn't make the wrong decision.
U know they did pretty bad in serveral cases recently.
Also we r glad to c China influence the world more.
Posted by: huahua | April 11, 2007 6:31 AM
Hi,
It is to bring to your kind attention a mobile web 2.0 startup site launched by me which intends to bring the PRETTY BAD internet out there to mobiles in a
hasslefree manner and it also serves as a personal bookmark engine.
Please review.
Moblify.com -Mobile Serverside Bookmarks
Moblify is a bookmarks engine for mobiles.
It works with any web URL, WAP site and .mobi site.
It uses the best mobile transcoders(google,iyhy,Skweezer,Phonifier) available in the market and tap-reduce mechanisms to achieve this.
Moblify is also a bookmark engine that will store all your bookmarks for use on any mobile browser or device.
And best of all, as most other good web and mobile 2.0 companies , it is FREE.
For more details, visit www.moblify.com
WAP URL : wam.tw
Thanks,
Avinash.
Posted by: Avinash | April 12, 2007 5:20 AM
I used Maxthon for a couple of years a few years ago. I stopped bec they didn't support (or didn't fully or conveniently support... I don't recall the specifics) the Google Toolbar. That was a deal breaker. Maxthon's tabbed browsing was great! It wasn't until FF got support for the Google toolbar... initially through a non-"official" extension... that I was able to use Firefox regularly.
Posted by: BAdGiRL | April 25, 2007 9:11 PM