The Digital Markets Act gets off to a good start

Reuters reveals some early effects of the recently introduced Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union, among them a significant spike in popularity in the number of users of alternative browsers such as Aloha, Brave, Ecosia or Vivaldi.

The European antitrust regulation came into force on November 1, 2022, but did not oblige the so-called gatekeepers to comply with all its provisions, including making it easier to switch to other service providers, until March 6, 2024.

Now, just over a month after that date, four alternative browsers report sharp increases in popularity: Aloha, based in Cyprus and with a strong focus on privacy and Web3, reveals that user numbers grew by more than 250% in March, saying the spike is due to the inclusion of alternative browsers that companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft have been forced to add to their devices.

Other lesser-known browsers such as Brave, based on Chromium but equally oriented towards privacy protection; Germany’s Ecosia, with a focus fundamentally centered on sustainability; or the Norwegian Vivaldi, which offers privacy and personalization, also claim to have seen strong growth in their popularity in March for the same reasons.

For the moment, the growth of these alternative browsers is anecdotal: all of them were included…