Ecosia and Qwant, two European search engines, collaborate to create an index that reduces dependence on large tech companies.

Qwant, the French search engine focused on privacy, and Ecosia, a non-profit search engine based in Berlin that uses advertising revenue to fund reforestation initiatives and other climate-related projects, are collaborating on a new venture to develop their own European search index. This initiative aims to foster innovation in their respective search engines, particularly around generative artificial intelligence, and reduce their reliance on search indexes provided by tech giants like Microsoft (Bing) and Google. Currently, both rely on Bing's search APIs, and Ecosia also utilizes Google's search results. The significant increase in API costs is one of the factors driving this decision, as Microsoft substantially raised prices last year.

While neither Ecosia nor Qwant will completely abandon Bing or Google, they aim to diversify the underlying technology that supports their services with their own index. This will allow them to reduce operational costs and provide a more stable technical foundation for product development as GenAI technologies become increasingly relevant in digital consumer services. Both companies have already begun integrating GenAI features, although they do not plan to develop AI models on their own, opting instead to continue accessing language models from larger platforms.

Furthermore, they are open to collaborating with other European companies that want to join their initiative to achieve greater technological sovereignty, at least as clients of the new search index, as they plan to license access through an API. Olivier Abecassis, CEO of Qwant, stated that they intend to attract more investors to accelerate the project's development and mentioned they are willing to discuss with anyone interested in joining efforts.

The urgency from both companies is driven by the emergence of AI tools, which create new opportunities and risks. Christian Kroll, CEO of Ecosia, noted that providers like Bing and Google seem increasingly reluctant to allow access to their indexes, making it necessary for them to develop their own index. The company is also attentive to a regulatory environment in Europe that encourages local technological innovation, improving the opportunity to implement their own index.

The new joint venture, called European Search Perspective (EUP), will be established with 50% shared ownership. Although the investment from each party has not been disclosed, shareholders of both companies have expressed their support. EUP will operate independently from Ecosia’s non-profit model, allowing them to seek external capital. The index is set to start processing search traffic in France in the first quarter of next year, with plans to include a "significant portion" of traffic in Germany by the end of 2025, with the possibility of adding other European languages in the future.

Operationally, Qwant’s engineering team will move to EUP, and Abecassis will once again take on the role of CEO of the new entity. This collaboration is expected to increase effectiveness in search results and enable improvements in ranking algorithms, although each search engine will maintain its own user experience.

Unlike Brave, a search engine that also prioritizes privacy and has developed its own index, Abecassis asserts that their approach to the index is entirely different, aiming to create more diverse and sustainable search results. EUP’s strategy prioritizes "privacy-first" results, in contrast to how Google personalizes based on user data.

Now that the dependence on search infrastructure in Europe is becoming apparent, both Kroll and Abecassis emphasize the importance of having a locally developed index to ensure data sovereignty and avoid reliance on foreign platforms.