Ecosia and Qwant have announced a partnership to create a European search index, aiming to reduce their reliance on major U.S. tech companies like Google.
The joint venture, named the European Search Perspective, will be equally owned by both companies, according to CNBC.
Scheduled for launch in France in early 2025, the initiative will focus on delivering better search results in French and German, offering a more localized and independent alternative to U.S.-dominated search engines.
Ecosia, based in Berlin, and Qwant, headquartered in Paris, each offer unique value propositions in the search engine market.
Qwant emphasizes privacy by not tracking users or selling their data, while Ecosia is dedicated to sustainability, planting a tree for every 50 searches conducted.
Despite their alternative models, both companies currently rely on infrastructure from larger players, like Microsoft, to deliver their search results, as Google dominates over 90% of the global search engine market.
The partnership between Ecosia and Qwant to create the EUSP is a strategic move to reduce reliance on U.S. tech giants.
By developing a European search index, the two hope to provide more localized and privacy-focused search results, particularly for users in France and Germany, starting in 2025.
The CEO of Ecosia, Christian Kroll, explained that the launch of the European Search Perspective was partly made possible by the European Union’s new tech regulations.
The Digital Markets Act, which came into effect earlier this year, requires “gatekeeper” companies—such as Google—to offer fair and non-discriminatory access to their platforms.
Under the DMA, Google is required to share data that would allow competitors to offer more competitive and interoperable services.
Currently, alternative search engines like Ecosia, Qwant, and DuckDuckGo do not develop their own back-end infrastructure. Instead, they rely on existing technologies and search data from larger companies, such as Microsoft, to deliver search results.
Ecosia and Qwant have emphasized that their new search index will be “privacy-first,” leveraging technologies from Qwant that were redesigned in 2023. While both companies will use the search index for their own platforms, the technology will also be made available to other independent search engines and tech firms.
“We are European companies and we need to build technology that makes sure no third-party decision — for instance, Microsoft’s decision to increase costs to access their search API — could jeopardize our business,” Olivier Abecassis, CEO of Qwant said.
“It is nothing against the U.S. or U.S. companies. It is all about the sovereignty of our business and companies,” he added.
