The search engine also has an affiliate program with HotelsCombined called Ecosia Travel. This number could be reduced dramatically depending on other factors, like whether you click on an advert and how “valuable” the search term is in terms of advertisement payout. This profit is then used to fund the planting of trees.Īccording to Ecosia, it takes about 45 searches to fund the planting of one new tree. Just like DuckDuckGo, affiliate ads that are displayed alongside search results enable the search engine to turn a profit. Converting Advertisements Into TreesĮcosia makes money like most other search engines: through advertisements. A total of 47% of revenue was used on taxes and operational costs, while 3% was used for advertising purposes. To break down the spending, Ecosia spent 40% of its revenue from this period on trees, with a further 10% going to green investments like solar plants and regenerative agriculture. In November of 2020, the search engine generated over €1.8 million ($2.2 million) and financed over 650,000 trees. The search engine regularly posts financial reports on its blog to disclose total monthly revenue and identify what percentage was used to plant trees. Trees are also planted in some of the poorest agricultural regions in the world to help restore soil, increase biodiversity, and provide alternatives to monoculture crops.Įcosia is transparent about its revenue and tree-planting activities. These efforts are focused mostly on biodiversity hotspots, which only make up around 2.3% of the earth’s surface, but nevertheless account for half of all unique plant species and over 40% of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. EcosiaĮcosia is currently committed to 20 tree-planting projects in 15 countries all around the world, from South American countries like Peru and Brazil to Madagascar and Ethiopia in Africa, and other countries, including Spain and Indonesia. The search engine is also concerned with the plight of animals around the world that are losing their habitats to deforestation.

However, the same survey found that shoppers searching on Amazon took longer to make a purchase (25.9 days) than those beginning product searches on Google (19.6 days).The service acknowledges that trees can help empower and lift vulnerable populations out of poverty through the regeneration of depleted soils and agroforestry food-growing programs.

A Salsify survey from the same year found 41% started on Amazon and 28% in Google.

An Adeptmind survey in 2018 found that 46.7% of US web users began searching for products on Amazon, compared with 34.6% on Google.

Several studies have found that product searches are more likely to begin on Amazon than Google, a stat that underlines the dominance of Jeff Bezos over online retail. It’s vital to optimise for mobile searchers though, as 61% of shoppers are more likely to visit or call if the business has a mobile-friendly website. Mobile can be even more important from a local search perspective, as 88% of people who search for local businesses on a mobile device contact the business within 24 hours. 46% of searches on Google are from users looking for local information, while 72% of shoppers that perform a local search subsequently visit a store within five miles.

Ecosia market share