As we all know, this is the world of the Internet where everybody is connected with everybody. Anything you want to buy, want to see, want to learn, or want to sell, you can conveniently do it online by browsing. It is the act of going through the data over the internet, commonly known as ”surfing.” There are different browsers with different features allowing the users a great experience. Among Chrome, Mozilla, and Opera, another popular name of a free browser is called the ”Brave” browser.
This platform allows ad-free access to users and helps the people earn money just by browsing on Brave. But how does this free browser actually generate its own revenue? Let’s find out as this platform is the complete guide for you to understand how brave browser makes money.
What is Brave?
Brave is an internet browser with the main focus of providing a private and ad-free browsing experience. This browser allows users to access a website, apps, and other online content while blocking all sorts of ads automatically. However, it does show Brave-supported ads through which users can earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT). It does not track your movements and does not store or misuse your data. In addition to that, it offers malware and phishing protection as well.
Brave is a Chromium-based web browser. Chromium is an open-source project used by Google and other browser operators. Brave has its own search engine and personalized newsfeed. Users can enjoy offline playlists on it and communicate through Brave Talk, their online video conferencing feature. This browser can be downloaded on your computer or phone. The mobile app is available on the Google play store and the iOS play store.
How did the Company Start?
The headquarters of the company, Brave Software Inc. is located in San Francisco and California. The company was founded in 2015 by Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy. Eich had an educational background in computer science. He went on to work in different companies, including Silicon Graphics and MicroUnity Systems Engineering. In 1995, he started working at Netscape. Working here at Netscape Eich came up with the highly used programming language ”JavaScript.” In 1998, an open-source software project, Mozilla, was developed by him and some other developers.
In 2003 Netscape was sold, and Mozilla became a separate non-profit organization. In 2011, Mozilla Corporation became the platform where Eich met Brian Bondy. In 2014, Eich announced his resignation from Mozilla Corporation. For the next 1.5 years, he remained busy working on Brave. In 2015, he was successful in raising $2.5 million for the project code-named Brave software.
In 2016, Eich along with his team, launched the Brave software on personal computers and smartphones. It was the first web browser dealing with Bitcoin for its payments to publishers. 55% of the ads served on their websites went to the publishers, and the remaining 45% was split between the reader and Brave. The price of cryptocurrency became very unstable in 2017, leading Brave to launch its own cryptocurrency known as Basic Attention Token (BAT). Within 30 seconds, more than $30 million was raised with this approach.
Brave has almost 57.42 million monthly active users and 19.3 million daily active users as of 2022. More than $40 million is generated by Brave every year through their amazing services of providing privacy-focused and ad-free browsing.
How Does Brave Browser Make Money?
Brave is a free browser that you can download on your phone or computer. Having a free browser often makes you wonder how does it generate its revenue? To solve this mystery, here is all you need to know about how Brave browser makes money:
Advertising
Although Brave blocks all the ads and trackers, but it allows the users to view the Brave-supported ads. Most of the revenue is generated by this advertising feature.
Banner Ads
These banner ads are not shown by default. Users have to accept that ads are shown. Once the user has chosen to view the ads, he or she will earn 70% of the ad revenue and 30% will be gone to Brave. This revenue is paid in the form of BAT. Users can also donate their BAT to their favorite publishers.
Search Advertising
Brave offers search ads for its own search engine. These ads are simply based on the search query. They are not used to track the users across web. An auction-based system will choose the advertiser with the highest bid, and show it as a top result. Brave generates revenue for every click the search ad attracts.
BAT Tokens
Brave uses Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) to make money. Fees are generated by these BAT tokens to reward the users through Brave Rewards. The BAT tokens can be bought or sold at any crypto exchange. Advertisers pay Brave in the form of BAT to run their ads on their platform. These advertisers pay more as more users join the Brave rewards to view the Brave-supported ads.
Subscriptions
In addition to being a browser, Brave also offers other software for which the users need to get a subscription. Brave firewall combined with VPN is a paid feature of Brave. Users can subscribe for this at $9.99 per month. But this feature is only available on mobile devices. Just like Google Meet and Zoom, Brave offers conferencing tool called Brave Talk. Brave charges a subscription fee of $7.99 per month for this feature.
Affiliate Commissions
The Brave browser generates money from different affiliate links as well. When you open the browser, you can see options to purchase cryptocurrencies through different companies, including Gemini, Binance, and Crypto.com. Brave will receive a commission from each transaction made via these companies. Brave has also made its own page for affiliate offers. This page is called Brave Offers, where you will find all the discount offers on different products and other free trials.
Physical and Digital Products
Brave sells many physical and digital products on its online store called the ”Swag Store.” This store has many branded hoodies, jackets, socks, hats, and stickers for children. One good thing about the Swag Store is that you can pay here through your BAT tokens.
How Can You Earn Money with Brave Browser?
Yes, you heard it right it is possible to earn money with Brave browser. As we have already discussed, Brave removes all the ads from the website and instead replaces them with their own. By viewing their ads, users can earn money in the form of BAT tokens. These BAT tokens are sent to your BAT wallets which can later be exchanged for cryptocurrency or real money. You can increase your earning by making Brave your default browser and setting 10 ads per hour to get the most ads.
Who are the Competitors of Brave Browser?
Mozilla and Safari are the major competitors of Brave. As privacy is the main feature offered by Brave, all the other browsers are hoping to meet the privacy criteria of Brave. Mozilla is also trying to make privacy their key feature, and Safari continues to launch new features to preserve the privacy of the users.
Conclusion
Brave is a well-known web browser offering privacy-focused and ad-free browsing to its users. The company was launched in 2015 by Brendan Eich and Brian Bondy. It blocks the ads on the website and instead shows its own ads. For viewing these ads, the users get Basic Attention Token (BAT). These tokens can then be exchanged for real money. This browser does not store or misuse your data. Brave makes money by advertising, affiliate commissions, physical and digital products, and subscriptions. Brave charges a fee of $9.99 per month for the VPN feature and $7.99 per month for their conferencing tool. With over 57.42 million monthly active users, Brave earns more than $40 million.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These are some frequently asked questions about the Brave browser:
Is Brave browser faster than Chrome?
Brave is faster than Chrome as it loads the pages twice as fast as Chrome on the desktop and eight times faster than Chrome on the smartphone.
How much a user can earn using the Brave browser?
A regular user can earn up to $5 every month by using Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) offered by Brave Rewards. This amount depends on how much time you spend viewing content on the Brave browser.
Does Google own Brave?
No, Google does not own Brave. It is owned by an independent privately held company called ”Brave Software Inc.”
Does Brave Browser have a VPN service?
Brave VPN service requires a subscription. You can get this subscription by using the Brave premium account. Unwanted viruses and trackers are blocked with Brave VPN service.
Matthew is a Co-Founder at BusinessFinanceArticles.org. Matthew was a floor manager at a local restaurant in Wales. He lost his job after the pandemic and took initiative to make a team and start the project.
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