DuckDuckGo (also abbreviated as DDG) is an internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers’ privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results. 

DuckDuckGo distinguishes itself from other search engines by not profiling its users and by showing all users the same search results for a given search term.

The company is based in Paoli, Pennsylvania, in Greater Philadelphia, and has 93 employees as of May 2020. The company name is a reference to the children’s game duck, duck, goose.

This article will focus on how DuckDuckGo make money and some of its features that separate it from Google and others.

• How Does DuckDuckGo Make Money
• Can DuckDuckGo Be A Threat To Google Business Model?
• DuckDuckGo Stats & Facts
• DuckDuckGo Facts and Figures
• Is DuckDuckGo Dark Web?
• 10 Things DuckDuckGo Can Do That Google Can’t

As of May 2020, it had 61,746,357 daily searches on average. DuckDuckGo positions itself as a search engine that puts privacy first and as such it does not store IP addresses, does not log user information, and uses cookies only when required.

Gabriel Weinberg, creator of DuckDuckGo, states: “By default, DuckDuckGo does not collect or share personal information. That is our privacy policy in a nutshell.” They maintain logs of all search terms used “though not in a personally identifiable way.”

Read Also: How Does Google Get Profit by Search Engine

Weinberg has refined the quality of his search engine results by deleting search results for companies he believes are content mills, such as Demand Media’s eHow, which publishes 4000 articles per day produced by paid freelance writers, which Weinberg says is “low-quality content designed specifically to rank highly in Google’s search index”. DuckDuckGo also filters pages with substantial advertising.

Instant Answers

In addition to the indexed search results, DuckDuckGo displays relevant results, called Instant Answers, on top of the search page. These Instant Answers are collected from either third party APIs or static data sources like text files.

The Instant Answers are called zeroclickinfo because the intention behind these is to provide what the user is searching for on the search result page itself so that the user does not have to click any results to find what they are looking for. As of July 2019, there were 1236 Instant Answers active.

The Instant Answers are open source and are maintained on GitHub, where anyone can build or work on them.

Tor Access

In August 2010, DuckDuckGo introduced anonymous searching, including an exit enclave, for its search engine traffic using Tor network and enabling access through an onion service. This allows anonymity by routing traffic through a series of encrypted relays.

Weinberg stated: “I believe this fits right in line with our privacy policy. Using Tor and DDG, you can now be end to end anonymous with your searching. And if you use our encrypted homepage, you can be end to end encrypted as well.”

Voice Search

In 2011, DuckDuckGo introduced voice search for users of the Google Chrome voice search extension.

Bangs

DuckDuckGo includes “!Bang” keywords, which give users the ability to search on specific third-party websites – using the site’s own search engine if applicable. As of July 2019, 12,547 “bangs” for a diverse range of Internet sites are available. 

In December 2018, around 2,000 “bangs” were deleted. Some of them were deleted due to being broken, while others, such as searches of pirated content sites, were deleted for liability reasons.

How Does DuckDuckGo Make Money

DuckDuckGo makes money in two simple ways: Advertising and Affiliate Marketing. Advertising is shown based on the keywords typed into the search box. Affiliate revenues come from Amazon and eBay affiliate programs. When users buy after getting on those sites through DuckDuckGo the company collects a small commission.

When you surf the web through Google, the search engine is tracking you so that you can get targeted ads by the businesses part of the AdWords network. While this is interesting for businesses, which can quickly make money from advertising.

That is a flaw in this model: users’ privacy. In fact, as concerns from how data online gets used by private companies or governments that opens up new concerns from users. A concern is a threat to an established organization, but an opportunity for a rising one. Those fears can become a value proposition.

That is precisely what DuckDuckGo has done. Privacy has been the beginning one of the reasons why the search engine got built.

Advertising without tracking

According to DuckDuckGo‘s founder, Gabriel Weinberg, that is a myth that you have to track users to advertise. One a person enters a keyword into the search box, and if that keyword could be connected to a product or service, then the search engine may return an ad within the results.

For instance, if I’m searching for “car insurance” then the search engine will return an advertisement related to that. As simple as that. The search engine will not track either use your data as it will through it right after the search gets completed.

In short, where Google value proposition fails, DuckDuckGo builds up a business. DuckDuckGo‘s business model has one key stakeholder: users. And it has one fundamental value proposition: privacy.

A new revenue generation pattern for search: Affiliate Marketing

There is nothing innovative about affiliate marketing. What is innovative is the use of that for a search engine. As we saw DuckDuckGo uses affiliations as a way to generate revenue streams together with untargeted advertising.

Is DDG model sustainable?

As of 2015, DuckDuckGo was profitable, and its revenues exceeded $1 million. Compared to Google‘s 74.9 billion. In short, DuckDuckGo revenues make up about 0.001% of Google‘s revenue.

Of course, the fact that the company is profitable and able to grow its users’ base consistently is a good sign. However, will it be able to grow enough to be sustainable in the long run?

That will depend on whether or not users’ concerns related to privacy will grow and DuckDuckGo ability to create new revenue generation patterns, besides advertising and affiliate marketing.

For instance, if privacy is a substantial concern, a subscription-based web search might be one option. Experimentation here is the key to find its business model-market fit.

DuckDuckGo has managed to build a business model based on differentiating its value proposition compared to Google. Google’s value mainly comes from its ability to track its users to offer targeted ads.

While this is a strength that makes it attractive for businesses to pay for Google ads, and publishers to know what content users want, that might also be a weakness. As privacy concerns grow, more users are willing to give up Google to find an alternative to that.

Based on that. DuckDuckGo has built a value proposition based on privacy. Where Google tracks its users, DuckDuckGo doesn’t. So how does it make money?

Mainly through untracked advertising and affiliate marketing. Is this business model sustainable? As of 2015, DuckDuckGo was already profitable. It revenues though are a tiny fraction of Google revenues.

Thus, the question that comes to mind is “will ever DuckDuckGo become a dominant player?” That is hard to answer, and it will depend on DuckDuckGo ability to experiment with other sources of revenue generations.

For instance, if privacy is something so critical for DuckDuckGo users, why not experimenting with a subscription-based search? Who says that search has to be free at all?

Can DuckDuckGo Be A Threat To Google Business Model?

It’s hard to know right now how big the “online privacy” market will be. DuckDuckGo (DDG) is leveraging on a Google weakness to build up momentum (it is essential to clarify that since 2009 DDG has grown pretty fast).

Thus, as of now DuckDuckGo, value proposition “we don’t track you, we don’t collect, neither share your data” is quite powerful, and it is working as a propeller for its growth.

Yet, when it comes to DDG business model, it still makes money via Advertising and Affiliate Marketing. Advertising is shown based on the keywords typed into the search box. Affiliate revenues come from Amazon and eBay affiliate programs. When users buy after getting on those sites through DuckDuckGo the company collects a small commission.

Can DDG still grow?

It can and it probably will; as privacy concerns grow, especially over Google and Facebook monopolies, the “online privacy” market might keep growing quite quickly.

In short, the paradox is that as those multi-billion dollar digital advertisers can’t live without your data, the more privacy will become a concern, thus a business opportunity. On the other hand, a business model is made of many moving parts.

Therefore, even though DDG might continue to gain traction and it might do so via the existing monetization strategy and other rounds of financing, it will need a viable business model (to compete against a tech giant like Google) any time soon.

Also, as search is moving toward mobile, voice and other kinds of online discoveries; traditional search might become secondary. True, the Lindy Effect tells us that something unperishable – like search technology – that lived for 20 years might live for at least other 20 years. However, it might not tell us much about the adoption rate.

Indeed, it might be true that the search market will still be a technology that will exist for the next twenty years at least. Yet it might be that the rate of adoption will be way lower than it is today.

Imagine the scenario where you are given several ways to consume content, and traditional search is just one of them. How many chances there are that people will still keep using it?

Google itself is using its cash cow (the advertising network comprising AdWords and AdSense) to reinvest massively in voice search, and as other tech giants like Apple (with Cortana) and Amazon (with Alexa) are also investing massive resources on that, the way we consume content might completely change in a few years. And once again search might still exist but as a niche of a much broader market that offers many other ways of consuming content.

In that context, DDG might make a great niche search engine and alternative to Google but nothing more; yet if DDG can grow faster, find a sustainable business model (for such intended both profitable and able to allow DDG to scale up) and move also to voice (assuming you can enable voice search based on the privacy of its users) then we might see the birth of another tech giant, one the founded its success on privacy!

DuckDuckGo Stats & Facts

• Search queries on DuckDuckGo increase by 50% over the years.
• DuckDuckGo has received a total of $13 million in funding.
• The reported yearly revenue with 24 million searches was approximately $25 million.
• In Q2 2019, 62% of DuckDuckGo’s organic searches came from mobile devices.
• An all-time high of nearly 50 million searches per day hit on October 28, 2019.
• DuckDuckGo usage statistics reveal more than 30 million daily searches in the US.
• The estimated net worth of the company is $901 million.
• After receiving the latest funding, the number of employees has grown to 68.
• DuckDuckGo is at 1.27% in the mobile search market in the US.

DuckDuckGo Facts and Figures

1. The search engine was founded by Gabriel Weinberg in February of 2008

DuckDuckGo history goes back to 2008 when Gabriel Weinberg founded it in his basement. It is a “hybrid” search engine, as its foundation is on various vendors’ search APIs, rather than the approach leading search engines rely on. It wasn’t until March 15, 2010, that it was decided not to track search history, a revolutionary move that has proven to be the driving force of their popularity.

2. DuckDuckGo has received a total of $13 million in funding

The company was self-funded until they got their first raise of $3 million in 2011. This funding was followed by a significant boost of $10 million in 2018 through their partnership with OMERS. With these funds, the company is set to continue to grow and expand its privacy protection policy worldwide. Based on these numbers, it is evident that the DuckDuckGo funding growth is directly proportionate with the attention they’re getting.

3. Due to their privacy policy, there is no exact number of how many people use the search engine

DuckDuckGo’s CEO states: “Since we do not track users, it’s impossible for us to know exactly how many users visit our site every month.” An educated guess is made based on the average of 30 searches per month. The total accounts to approximately 25 million people based on the search engine’s average daily searches.

4. After receiving the latest funding, DuckDuckGo employees have grown to 68

There is still plenty of catching up to do, but considering the founder, Gabriel, was the sole employee until 2011, along with the fact there were only ten employees by 2014, this is a significant jump. What’s more, their website reveals that they are currently looking to fill at least four open positions. With the growing popularity of the search engine, this number is expected to grow considerably in the near future.

5. They do not collect any user information and don’t allow their partners to do so either

Not only does the DuckDuckGo search engine not collect any information from searchers, but they continue to protect privacy even when referring to a partner for information on queries. Rather than merely redirecting user information to the partner when searching, DuckDuckGo proxies information through their own servers, thus keeping searchers entirely anonymous in the process.

6. Gabriel Weinberg drafted a bill called Do-Not-Track Act of 2019 for complete privacy protection

Advertising has become more and more invasive and aggressive, with users information sold without their consent or knowledge. The idea behind the Do-Not-Track Act of 2019 is to make the DuckDuckGo advertising principles a default for everyone. Although a long shot, it’s the first step towards a more extensive change towards privacy improvement.

7. DuckDuckGo holds 1.27% of the mobile search market in the US

In 2018, just over 52% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through a mobile device. As of 2019, DuckDuckGo passed the 1% mark in the US mobile search market and is at 1.27% as of July 2019. Since almost everyone has a smartphone in their pocket today, these findings, in a way, have a lot more weight than desktop usage. The DuckDuckGo app functions the same as its desktop browser in allowing users to search without compromising their privacy.

8. The only US search engine to manage a positive growth in Q2 2019 was DuckDuckGo

While other major search engines saw overall drops in organic search visits; for instance, the 26% drop for Bing, DuckDuckGo saw a total increase of 49% across all devices and a 64% rise on mobile devices. This incredible growth gives insight as to the change in trust towards search engines, especially on mobile devices. With many concerns about privacy on mobile phones and rumors of how information is collected, it’s completely understandable that DuckDuckGo popularity is quickly growing.

9. 91% of US internet users feel they have no control over their data privacy

The reason for DuckDuckGo’s success is that more than 61% of US internet users want to do more about protecting their privacy. On the other hand, a staggering 91% feel they have no control over it. Media coverage of privacy issues has driven them to search for alternatives such as DuckDuckGo.

10. Optimizing for DuckDuckGo as a webmaster is quite different than with other search engines

Although webmasters aren’t paying much attention to the small search engine yet, it is something they should start thinking about soon. Unlike with other search engines, though, they will have to have a completely different approach. As they do not collect any information on their users, there are no DuckDuckGo trends available. In turn, this makes targeting more difficult for advertisers.

11. Advertising on DuckDuckGo is also different than on other search engines

Before jumping into a PPC campaign, remember that customization and control will not be the same. The reason for the creation of the search engine was to protect users and their privacy from advertising abuse. With that said, their campaigns run through Bing and Yahoo. However, with DuckDuckGo being a relatively small search engine you will have very little competition.

12. DuckDuckGo makes money through affiliate marketing and advertising

They show advertising according to search terms. Tracking isn’t necessary, on contrary to other search engines’ claims. Ads come up as long as they have a connection to the search terms. Affiliate marketing through eBay and Amazon is the other approach for profits for DuckDuckGo.

Also, there is no such thing as DuckDuckGo stocks. The reason behind this is that stockholders have control over what a company does, including pushing to make changes that could be detrimental to their beliefs. As per FourWeekMBA, “DuckDuckGo‘s business model has one key stakeholder: users. And it has one fundamental value proposition: privacy!” We believe there is no better way to put it.

13. The reported yearly revenue, with 24 million searches, was approximately $25 million

The last revenue post was $25 million when DuckDuckGo had 24 million searches. At this rate of 30% annual growth and based on their business model, in five years they will reach an annual revenue of $150 million. So far, the DuckDuckGo revenue is greatly benefiting from their business model, and in five years they may easily surpass expectations.

14. Due to their privacy policy, there is no specific number of how many people use the search engine

As per CEO & Founder at DuckDuckGo.com, “Since we do not track users, it’s impossible for us to know exactly how many users visit our site every month.” An educated guess is made based on 30 average searches per person per month. The total comes to approximately 25 million people. Even though many would like to see actual DuckDuckGo statistics, they are happy that the search engine stands behind their privacy policy.

The future of DuckDuckGo looks bright. They are continuously adding new features and opportunities to grant their search engine users quality searching, all the while protecting their privacy. They may have had a slow start, and considering the competition they are up against, it may seem like they have set unachievable goals.

15. Statistics on DuckDuckGo usage reveal more than 30 million searches a day in the US

This number grows daily as the media continues to discuss online privacy. More and more people are seeking out an alternative to leading search engines due to privacy concerns. All of this currently places DuckDuckGo as the fourth largest US search engine with more than a billion worldwide searches monthly.

16. 37% of searches on DuckDuckGo come from the US

DuckDuckGo demographics show that in October of 2019 the highest percentage of users are from the US, at 37%. Germany follows behind at just 9.1%, and the UK is at 5%.

These stats are no surprise considering the US has seen significant problems regarding online privacy and user information collection in recent years. The media has recently blown up over the use of gathered information and the lack of overall privacy the moment you go online.

17. In Q2 2019, DuckDuckGo caught up with Google in organic searches from mobile devices

In terms of share of search engine traffic from mobile devices, as per Google search statistics, Google is the leader in Q2 2019 with 63%. This is just 1% more than the DuckDuckGo traffic of 62%. Bing and Yahoo trail behind with 52% and 23%, respectively. This is an impressive jump from Q4 2017 when DuckDuckGo was more than 10 points lower than Google.

18. DuckDuckGo doubled its total worldwide search engine market share from 2017

As per search engine statistics, in 2017, DuckDuckGo’s global market share was at only 0.22%. Today, it is slightly below Yandex Ru and has plenty to catch up with the other major search engines.

However, DuckDuckGo’s total worldwide search engine market share has jumped to 0.43%. This is an impressive hike for just two years. Seeing the gradual growth, it won’t be long before the DuckDuckGo market share gap is at a minimum.

19. Only 22% of users are willing to trade their privacy for an improved online experience

Users have lost trust in companies and the way they treat their private data. Approximately 45% of US internet users have found themselves to be victims of data breach over the last five years.

20. DuckDuckGo has over 50% increase in search queries over the years

With a 55% growth in 2017 with just under 6 billion and a 56% growth in 2018 with more than 9.2 billion in search queries, DuckDuckGo is steadily grabbing searchers’ attention. By October 2019, there were nearly 12 billion search queries, indicating a continuous trend in DuckDuckGo growth.

21. DuckDuckGo’s net worth is estimated at $901 million

Based on the estimated daily, monthly, and annual revenue of the search engine, the estimated worth of the website is currently at $901 million. Once again, due to the fact that there is very little real information about what visitors are doing, calculating the DuckDuckGo net worth is difficult. It can only be estimated based on the number of visitors alone and the seach engine’s means of profit through advertising and affiliate marketing.

22. In 2018, American companies spent more than $19 billion on consumer data

Data brokers gather, analyze, and then sell users’ data. What they give in return is a customized service and personalized advertisements. Even if the information these brokers sell may not be accurate or up to date, their business is apparently thriving, with more than $19 billion spent on user information in the US alone. What sets the DuckDuckGo browser apart from the rest is that they do not collect personal data, and therefore do not sell it to data brokers.

23. A new high of nearly 50 million searches per day hit on October 28, 2019

With a record of approximately 38 million searches back in April 2019, the new record shows a 31.5% increase in just six months. The growing interest in privacy and security is clearly showing as DuckDuckGo continues to hit new high records. After Google announced them as an option in their default search engine list, the DuckDuckGo stats we’ll be seeing will have even higher numbers.

24. Only 17% of users think that tailored advertisements are ethical

Although personalized experiences reveal an increase in activity and sales, users don’t seem to like it at the expense of their privacy. A study by the RSA shows that only 17% of users find tailored advertisements ethical, and only 24% find customized newsfeeds as ethical.

With that said, the future of the tiny search engine looks very promising. As the war on gaining our privacy back continues, more and more people will turn to trusted companies that do not buy into the profits of selling out their customers. Although progress seems slow, the DuckDuckGo statistics will continue to impress.

Is DuckDuckGo Dark Web?

When you open Tor on your computer, you’ll automatically be directed to the search engine DuckDuckGo. While DuckDuckGo is designed to provide extra privacy and encryption while searching the web, you shouldn’t think of it as the dark web version of Google.

That’s because even in Tor, DuckDuckGo searches the clear web. That means if you do a keyword search, your results are going to be basically the same as what you would find on the regular internet.

10 Things DuckDuckGo Can Do That Google Can’t

After using DuckDuckGo as our primary search engine for quite some time, we found that its instant answers are often as good as or better than Google’s Knowledge Graph. Here are 10 amazing things DuckDuckGo can do that Google can’t.

1. Social media bio

DuckDuckGo lets you see the social media profiles of people without leaving the search engine. So, search for @ndtvgadgets and you can see full the profile information on the same page. The same thing works for Google+ and Gravatar as well.

To look up a Twitter bio, you need to search for the handle. For Google+, type G+ and then the name of the user. For Gravatar, just type Gravatar, and then the username you want to look up.

Another cool feature that is related is letting you search inside other sites. With Google, you can use the site: modifier to search for results within a particular site, but then you still have to open the link to see the results. With DuckDuckGo, you can use the site’s own search functions.

For example, if you want to search for someone’s details on LinkedIn, you don’t need to open the site. Just type “!linkedin” followed by the person’s name, and you will see the LinkedIn search results page.

You can do this with a large number of websites; !g lets you search with Google, !a is Amazon, !r is Reddit, just to name a few. You can see the full list by just typing ! in the DuckDuckGo search bar.

2. App store search, alternatives to apps

Search for any popular app on DuckDuckGo and you will find that it shows a carousel full of apps with similar names. Just search for NDTV Gadgets app to see what we mean.

Read Also: How Does a Search Engine Site Earn Money

Clicking on any one of the cards on the carousel will show you the price of the app, a description and links to the store. We found that this feature doesn’t work with very obscure apps, but it can find most of the well-known ones.

Another useful feature shows alternatives to apps in a neat carousel. Tired of MS Office? Just search for “Alternative to Word” and see the results for yourself. It also works for Web services, so you can even search for “Alternative to DuckDuckGo”, if you like.

3. Shorten and expand links

Want to find out which websites are at the end of shortened links such as http://bit.ly/1tYrmaB ? Open DuckDuckGo and search “expand http://bit.ly/1tYrmaB”. Also, if you want to shorten long URLs, enter “shorten https://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/android-browser-security-hole-affects-millions-of-users-says-expert-592578” to get a URL shortened using is.gd.

4. Generate passwords

Can’t think of a strong password? Just head to DuckDuckGo and search for “Password 20”. You’ll see a strong 20-character password. You can replace the number to change the number of characters in the password. If you find those random passwords hard to remember, you can make DuckDuckGo generate XKCD-style passwords.

These passwords comprise four common words put together, which are easy to remember and hard to crack, and were first suggested in the popular Web comic XKCD. For these passwords, search “Random passphrase”.

5. Quick stopwatch

Both Google and DuckDuckGo let you create a quick timer (search for “timer”) but DuckDuckGo also has a stopwatch. Simply search for “stopwatch” to use it.

6. Change case and check number of characters

Want to change a sentence to Title Case, lowercase or UPPERCASE? Just add one of those three terms before your sentence and key it in on DuckDuckGo. For example, “Uppercase ndtv gadgets” leads to “NDTV GADGETS”.

Another interesting feature is the number of characters. You can quickly check how many characters are in your search query by adding “chars” before or after the query. Try searching for “chars I really like this article” without the quotes and see the results.

7. Checks whether websites are down

If you can’t open a website, you might want to check if it is not opening anywhere or just on your computer. You can use websites such as isup.me to check this or you can simply search DuckDuckGo with the keywords like, “Is gadgets.ndtv.com down for me“.

8. Does mime rhyme with time

You read that right. DuckDuckGo also has an instant answer that finds rhyming words. Search “rhymes with ndtv” or any other word you can think of. You’ll see an instant answer with rhyming words, from RhymeBrain.

9. Calendar

Google and DuckDuckGo can show you the current date and time. But DuckDuckGo goes one step further by supporting calendar as an instant answer. Search “calendar” to see one, with the current date highlighted. It can also show you the calendar for any month and year. Try searching for “calendar january 1899“.

10. Loan calculator

Another useful DuckDuckGo instant answer is a loan calculator. It’s useful if you want to see how much your monthly installments will be and how much interest you’ll be paying in total. The search query for this is a little hard to remember, like the terms and conditions for most loan agreements.

It is “loan AMOUNT at INTEREST with PERCENT down for DURATION”. All the uppercase words are what you need to key in – total amount, interest rate, down payment percentage and the duration of the loan. 

Conclusion

From a grand idea born in a basement to a quickly growing search engine and advocate of user privacy, DuckDuckGo is gaining momentum and attracting much attention.

Although it was initially considered a very optimistic goal to set their sights at becoming a search engine leader, they are changing people’s minds nowadays, as they consistently beat their own records.

As people become more aware of the privacy policies of DuckDuckGo, the search engine will gain even more traction. We don’t expect their numbers to dwindle anytime soon, so expect DuckDuckGo statistics to continue revealing even more staggering numbers.