DuckDuckGo made its debut in 2008, at a time when the true extent of data collection by companies like Google and Facebook was only beginning to come to light. Weinberg recalls the slow but steady progress in the early years and points to 2011 as a pivotal moment when the team expanded and the mission to elevate trust standards online took shape.
While privacy-focused browsers face stiff competition from behemoths like Google Chrome and Apple’s Safari, Weinberg remains confident in DuckDuckGo’s mission. He asserts that DuckDuckGo is a “healthy, profitable company that protects user privacy instead of exploiting it.” He attributes the company’s growth to people’s increasing concerns about their online privacy, citing a Forrester study that found nearly 90% of US adults use privacy or security tools online.
According to Weinberg, DuckDuckGo’s browser and extensions have been downloaded over a quarter of a billion times, and Cloudflare ranks its search engine highly among mobile users in several countries. Looking ahead, he anticipates a growing desire among users to make the switch, fueled by the “ever-increasing exploitation of personal data” by tech giants.
