European Search Engines Ecosia and Qwant Team Up to Build Independent Index
Ecosia and Qwant form a joint venture to create their own European search index, aiming to reduce reliance on Google and Microsoft while cutting rising API costs.
European search engines Ecosia and Qwant form a joint venture to develop their own independent search index. This collaboration aims to reduce their reliance on tech giants Google and Microsoft, whose search APIs currently power both platforms. Rising API costs serve as a major motivator, especially after Microsoft significantly hikes prices for Bing's search APIs last year.
Neither company plans to abandon Big Tech APIs completely, but they intend to diversify their core technology to lower operational expenses. The new index provides a technical foundation to support their product development as generative AI becomes more central to consumer digital services. While both search engines experiment with GenAI features, they do not plan to develop their own AI models and will instead continue using API access to major large language models.
The partners are open to other European firms joining their push for tech stack sovereignty, primarily by licensing access to the search index via an API. Qwant CEO Olivier Abecassis emphasizes a sense of urgency, stating that existing shareholders are ready to support rapid development and investment. The door remains open for future partnerships as they work to move as fast as possible to establish this independent infrastructure.