The Advantages Of DuckDuckGo Which Have Reached 102 Million Searches

Display of the DuckDuckGo website (DuckDuckGo)

JAKARTA - DuckDuckGo, a search engine platform, has proven that user privacy is an important value. This Google alternative platform headquartered in Paoli, United States just hit 102,251,307 total searches as of Monday, January 18th.

This figure is a new milestone for the company. For the first time ever, DuckDuckGo has managed to get 100 million daily users.

In November 2019, DuckDuckGo reached 50 million searches per day. So, it took more than a year to reach 100 million.

Indeed, compared to Google, DuckDuckGo is not a real threat. Although exact figures are not available, Google has billions of users every day.

But, when it comes to strengths, DuckDuckGo deserves to be called promising. Putting user privacy as the main value, this search engine platform developed by Gabriel Weinberg has been quite successful in direct competition with Google.

It can be seen from the graph of user growth figures released by the company. Every year, there is always a significant increase in the number of users. The most significant additions occur every time Google, Safari, or other competitors add features that limit user privacy.

Privacy as the main principle

According to Forbes, the company claims that its search engine does not store users' personal information. As a result, DuckDuck Go has no personal data that can be sold freely.

DuckDuckGo Community Manager Daniel Davis said that this rapid growth reflected public awareness of personal data.

"There is also a growing concern for personal data being misused, and our fundamental right (users) to privacy is not respected by many companies," Davis told Forbes journalists, Tuesday, January 19.

This value is also the secret behind the growth of Signal and Telegram applications. Despite public unrest regarding WhatsApp's new privacy policy, the offer of a service with minimum access to users' personal data will allow both platforms to grow rapidly in early 2021.

Without selling data, where will the company's income come from?

Every company needs income. And of course the 55 employees keeping the platform running costs money to survive.

"Maybe people often ask how our income model is and how we can keep this free product running," said Davis.

Fortunately, continued Davis, the company has been profitable since 2014. Most of the revenue comes from ads that appear based on user search keywords. Not based on user profiles or search history as Google's technique.

“For example, if you type in the keyword 'car', we will show you ads related to cars, without knowing anything about you as an individual. In fact, because we don't collect personal data, we don't even have a concept of search history, ”said Davis.

DuckDuckGo's advantages compared to Google

In the competition for search engine platforms, DuckDuckGo is not a new player. This platform has opened its services since 2008. And until now, the platform has accommodated tens of millions of anonymous searches.

Like Google, users can get various types of data displayed in search engine results. Starting from the website, pictures, videos, and news.

Then, what are the advantages of DuckDuckGo over Google? Search Engine Journal mentioned two advantages of this platform.

The first is of course privacy. The main value that makes DuckDuckGo service different and trusted by users since it was first launched. A secure search engine is also the pride of the company, in the midst of the proliferation of similar platforms that rely on users' personal data.

Second, the company has designed this platform to be easy to use - even for beginners. A clear interface page and clear navigation guarantee the freedom of users to get the various information they want.

Third, DuckDuckGo's popularity is growing every year. For search engines, the number of keywords provided by users is one of the supplements that makes it even better. We can see Google, which combines keywords with user preferences so as to produce more precise and relevant searches.