The supremacy over the digital market is at stake, a titanic challenge for the new European search engine. It only reached Italy a few months ago, and despite having been launched in 2013 in France, it hasn’t created much of a stir. Yet the Qwant search engine is a very ambitious project: “We think we’re building a European alternative where web searches are concerned”, said Manuel Rozan, the company’s co-founder and president.
Google is clearly the market leader in searches, and trying to compete with such a colossus is an inspiring challenge. The project has in fact garnered the support of the German publishing group Axel Springer, which now holds a 20% stake, and of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has granted the French start-up 25 million euros through the European Community innovation program Horizon 2020.
Obviously, a European search engine that is unconnected to the US giant has plenty of geopolitical implications: the way a software of this kind selects and displays results has repercussions on the information itself and the users’ perception of the world. Search engines can also influence people’s business choices and online purchases. Questions have been raised as to whether allowing European web access to be managed by American companies gives an advantage to foreign companies and thus undermines Europe’s investments in broadband, digital markets, e-commerce and mobile payments.
To get out from under Google’s monopolistic umbrella, which might be promoting an excessively American perspective, “The only option is to develop a European guide to the worldwide web directly here in Europe”, said Eric Leandri, one of Qwant’s co-founders.
For the time being, however, any comparison to the American search engine is certainly out of proportion: 78% of all web searches performed in the world today rely on Google, with an average of 3.5 billion consultations a day. The French company doesn’t publish any figures, but it admits it would be very encouraged if it could secure 5% of the European market within the next five years.
One of the problems for Qwant in making a name for itself also hinges on the fact that it is not currently included in the standard configurations of Android tablet operating systems. “However, we believe there’s still room for innovation and diversification in the search engine market”, said Ulrich Schmitz, Axel Springer’s CTO and Managing Director of Axel Springer Digital Ventures.
So what’s so innovative about Qwant? The company claims that it can provide users with fast and relevant answers by integrating both the web and social networks. This should make Qwant searches very appealing, especially for current events. Moreover, the French search engine plays the privacy card, claiming that it does not keep track of user-specific browsing traffic.
Google, by contrast, makes no secret of analysing user preferences in order to provide results more in keeping with the user’s expectations, which also, or perhaps primarily, means supplying its users with targeted advertising. “European consumers are growing increasingly wary of how their personal details and their privacy are being exploited, and the social impact these companies can have on their lives”, noted Leandri.
So why have major IT sites such as Ars Technica, Slashdot and Gizmodo been completely ignoring Qwant? “So far we’ve focused on France and Germany and haven’t put too much effort into making ourselves known elsewhere”, Leandri admitted.
German sites such as Chip, Computer Bild and Heise are undoubtedly aware of Qwant, but adapting a search engine to the various European languages is time consuming and expensive. The French company has announced it will soon be launching Qwant in other EU countries. Only then will we see whether the initiative can successfully target its desired niche market or if the project will merely be a useful opportunity to participate and learn, which is exactly what Axel Springer’s top management had in mind from the outset.
Google is clearly the market leader in searches, and trying to compete with such a colossus is an inspiring challenge. The project has in fact garnered the support of the German publishing group Axel Springer, which now holds a 20% stake, and of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has granted the French start-up 25 million euros through the European Community innovation program Horizon 2020.
Obviously, a European search engine that is unconnected to the US giant has plenty of geopolitical implications: the way a software of this kind selects and displays results has repercussions on the information itself and the users’ perception of the world. Search engines can also influence people’s business choices and online purchases. Questions have been raised as to whether allowing European web access to be managed by American companies gives an advantage to foreign companies and thus undermines Europe’s investments in broadband, digital markets, e-commerce and mobile payments.
