English and German versions are being developed.Ĭompared with Google which is also developing a version for children, Qwant Junior gets a head start in Europe by protecting children’s data (guaranteed by a European directive) while Google’s economic model is based on analysing individuals. Currently in a beta version, Qwant Junior should be available sometime during 2015. Designed with children in mind and adapted for a touch-screen use, Qwant Junior removes the results of inappropriate sites and promotes an educational use. The company’s latest project is a search engine aimed at children aged between 3 and 12. Qwant Junior, a beta version for 3-12 year olds The company, which has a turnover of €1.5M has already distributed its platform in around thirty countries (Europe, Middle East, Latin America, etc.) and has announced a Corsican version. « Compared to Google, we are minute, but compared with a traditional start-up, it’s huge. » It is proof that an important investor can support a company that believes tracking people is not the number one business model. » This funding has enabled Qwant to move up a gear, buying new machines and implementing its projects for new services and speeding up its international development. With several million requests per day, the search engine remains modest but promising. The media giant, which will remain a minority shareholder, has similar requirements to the founders in terms of data protection. The « privacy » aspect spoke to them immediately », said Éric Leandri. Heightened by the Snowden affair, Qwant’s concept has resonated in Europe and attracted the attention of the German group Axel Springer, which last June acquired a 20% stake in the French start-up. The alternative to Google supported by the German group Axel Springer Our approach is different. » they explained to the Tribune Bulletin Côte d’Azur. This is the sort of objectivity that Google decided to supress. That’s what we’re trying to do to guarantee the neutrality of the internet with objective search results. A search engine can be neutral, not necessarily biased. Another founding concept that sets it apart from Google is the neutrality of the web results. Unlike with Google, this allows many items to be displayed on one « live » search page. Jean Manuel Rozan, financier, and Éric Leandri, a specialist in IT security joined forces in 2011 to create a new kind of search engine with an interface that orders search results by columns (web, news, social, shopping, images and music) and an algorithm, U-Rank, which places great importance on indexing from social networks. Qwant or the comprehensive, social and impartial algorithm CDC is presented as a “cornerstone shareholder” in the companies’ statement.Based in Paris and Nice, in early 2013 Qwant launched a French search engine as an alternative to the giant, Google. The start-up, which last month set up its thirty engineers and graphic artists in new premises in the centre of Nice, has announced the launch of a new service: Qwant Junior. Qwant’s financials and current shareholding structure were also not disclosed. The finalization of the deal, whose financials details were not disclosed, will follow “an analysis of recent changes in the financial conditions” of the Microsoft partnership with Qwant, according to the statement.
Qwant, founded in 2011 with the promise of safeguarding its users’ privacy, relies partly on the technology of Microsoft’s web search engine Bing after the company signed a partnership with the tech giant in 2019. Qwant will be acquired via a newly created entity, Synfonium, which will be 75% owned by Octave Klaba and his brother Miroslaw, they said in a joint statement with CDC and Qwant.ĬDC will own the remaining 25% shares in Synfonium, which will also include SHADOW, a cloud platform for businesses, gamers and content producers already owned by the Klabas. Once touted as the “French Google” by President Emmanuel Macron, Qwant failed to gain market share against the dominant Alphabet unit despite continued support by the government, which made it the default search engine for the state administration. Octave Klaba, the founder of French cloud computing services company OVHcloud, is set to take control of struggling search engine Qwant following a deal with public lender Caisse des Depots et Consignations (CDC).
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