Search Risk - How Google Almost Killed ProtonMail - ProtonMail Blog
▻https://protonmail.com/blog/search-risk-google
This incident however highlights a previously unrecognized danger that we are now calling Search Risk. The danger is that any service such as ProtonMail can easily be suppressed by either search companies, or the governments that control those search companies. This can happen even across national borders. For example, even though Google is an American company, it controls over 90% of European search traffic. In this case, Google directly caused ProtonMail’s growth rate worldwide to be reduced by over 25% for over 10 months.
This meant that ProtonMail’s income from users was also cut by 25%, putting financial pressure on our operations.