Back in June 2007, Firefox 3.0 skyrocketed to a record eight million downloads in just the first 24 hours following general availability. At the same time, the open source browser continues to enjoy what Mozilla referred to
as tens of millions of downloads, and yet Firefox is nothing short of crawling when it comes down to increasing its audience. While it is indeed eroding Internet Explorer's install base and constantly attracting audience, Mozilla revealed that no less than 75% of all
Firefox downloads go dead. Three quarters of all the users that download the open source browser never use it again.
“Retention marketing is one of Mozilla's key challenges. Currently tens of millions of Firefox users download the browser, but about 75% of those users are not active after that initial download. How do we get these past users back? And how do we keep future users active once they've downloaded Firefox?” reads a message from Impact Mozilla.
The 2008 Impact Mozilla challenge is an initiative designed to tackle this specific retention problem, with third-party help. Mozilla is in fact looking for marketing solutions which will be able to breathe life into additional Firefox downloads from the mass that go bust as soon as the last bits hit the end users' desktop. And it is looking to pay as much as a $3,000 prize for the winning plan.
“The specific 'marketing problem' we’re hoping to address is retention marketing. For example, over time we know that tens of millions of people have downloaded Firefox, but don’t continue to use it today. How do we either win some of these users back or how do we reduce this attrition rate with future new users? We’re open to other ideas as well. If you feel particularly inspired by another area of Mozilla’s marketing efforts - e.g., acquisition marketing, social media marketing, international marketing - we’re open to suggestions and submissions in those areas as well,” revealed Mozilla's Ken Kovash.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1; Firefox 3.0.3 and Firefox 2.0.0.17 for Windows are available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1 and Firefox 3.0.3 for Linux are available for download here.
Firefox 3.1 Alpha 1; Firefox 3.0.3 and Firefox 2.0.0.17 for Mac OS X are available for download here.
