Learn
- Learning Journeys
- Resource hub (coming soon)
Aug 28, 2025
by the Purpose Foundation
The debate around dominant tech platforms feels stuck on repeat: regulators force sales, another tech giant buys up assets, consolidation deepens. Recent discussions about Google potentially having to spin off part of its online search business point to a similar path. But alternatives to a traditional sale exist – as shown by a surprising move by Europe’s largest independent search engine, Ecosia. As reported in August 2025 Ecosia proposes to take over stewardship of Google’s Chrome browser.
This move comes as authorities step up their review of Google’s near monopoly in online search. Regulators are considering remedies, including separating Chrome from its core business. And while no decision has been made, major players like OpenAI or Perplexity have already expressed their interest in acquiring the browser.
But Ecosia has stepped in with a very different idea. Instead of a sale, it sent a proposal to the responsible judges as well as to Google, suggesting setting up a foundation-ownership model where Ecosia would take on stewardship for Chrome for the upcoming 10 years. So effectively, Chrome would be held by a foundation managed by Ecosia. The current Chrome team would stay on board to continue developing Chrome, Google would retain intellectual property of Chrome and receive 40 % of net revenues. The remaining 60 % would be controlled by Ecosia to be used for climate projects. After 10 years, a new steward could be chosen. Jobs would stay, Google would still benefit, but – society would benefit too: monopoly profits repurposed for the public good, not just for private shareholders.
Sounds a little absurd? Wait a minute – because actually, this rather wonderful idea is directly linked to Ecosia’s own ownership structure. And it shows, we are not stuck on repeat.
Ecosia is a steward-owned company, value created cannot be extracted by its shareholders, profit from the search engine are used for Ecosia’s mission of reforestation and climate protection. Control over the company cannot be sold or inherited but instead lies with the steward-owners – the people taking on stewardship for the company in the long run. Now, its proposal is applying that same stewardship mindset to one of the world’s most powerful browsers.
As Ecosia’s founder and CEO, Christian Kroll, puts it in an interview with German newspaper the ZEIT: a sale just moves Chrome “from one Big Tech company to the next” without changing the fundamental problem of power concentration. With their stewardship proposal, Ecosia, as a frontrunner of independent, user- and data-friendly digital infrastructure, reminds us that the future of digital infrastructure doesn’t have to be linear or uniform. And particularly, it shows regulators and tech companies that other alternatives exist.
There are other pathways — successful models where technology can be governed in service of the public, not just shareholders. And these alternatives, like steward-ownership and similar models, are being proposed, tried, and lived today.
Read on: