Firefox web browser prepares to close China entity amid competition from Chrome, Safari
Firefox grew to become the world’s second largest browser by 2009, when its global market share reached 30 per cent
The operator of the Firefox web browser, once a challenger to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) in the dotcom era, plans to close its China entity.
The Chinese version of Firefox put up a notice earlier this week, informing users of “the shutdown” of its main entity in Beijing and the “termination” of the web browser’s China accounts, according to social media posts and local media reports.
The notice, which also said that the software would continue to be available in the market, was later removed.
A Firefox employee on Tuesday published a manual on the Chinese language online forum of Firefox owner Mozilla, instructing users on how to back up data, configuration files and how to restore them.
The Chinese entity, Beijing Mozilla Firefox Information Technology, could not be reached for comment on Friday, as its email address was invalid and the phone went unanswered.
The Beijing office that was its registered address appeared to be closed when a Post representative visited on Thursday afternoon.