DuckDuckGo Beats Bing to Become #2 Mobile Search Engine in US, Canada, Australia

There are some big announcements on DuckDuckGo's blog at SpreadPrivacy.com:

'Our apps have been downloaded more than 50 million times over the last 12 months, more than all prior years combined...

'Spurred by the increase in DuckDuckGo app usage, over the last 12 months our monthly search traffic increased 55% and we grew to become the #2 search engine on mobile in many countries including in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. (StatCounter/Wikipedia).'

'We don't track our users so we can't say for sure how many we have, but based on market share estimates, download numbers, and national surveys, we believe there are between 70-100 million DuckDuckGo users.'

'We're excited to start rolling out additional privacy features to our all-in-one privacy bundle. In a few weeks, DuckDuckGo Email Protection will be available in beta which will give users more privacy without having to get a new inbox. Later this summer, app tracker blocking will be available in beta for Android devices, allowing users to block app trackers and providing more transparency on what's happening behind the scenes on their device. Before the end of the year, we also plan to release a brand-new desktop version of our existing mobile app which people can use as a primary browser.'

They're now pulling in over $100 million a year in revenue, 'giving us the financial resources to continue growing rapidly,' and at the end of 2020 they also landed a 'mainly secondary investment' of over $100 million from a long list of investors (which included Tim Berners-Lee as well as Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor).

One thing they're doing with their money is spreading the word about online privacy — by purchasing billboard, radio, and TV ads in 175 different markets across the U.S., with more marketing blitzes now planned soon for Europe and other countries around the world.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.