Qwant
Qwant is a French search engine, launched in February 2013. Qwant says that it is focused on privacy, does not track users, resell personal data, or bias the display of search results. Its results are similar to the Microsoft Bing search engine, however it is used only in case Qwant lacks information of certain website and for image searches. As of 2023, Qwant can be accessed from around 30 countries.
Etymology
The name Qwant stems from a combination of the letter Q from the word Quantum and the English word want.History
Creation
Qwant was created on May 25, 2011 in Nice by investors Jean-Manuel Rozan, Éric Léandri, and Patrick Constant.The metasearch engine was launched in beta in 15 countries and 35 languages on 16 February 2013, and in its final version on 4 July 2013 in its French localization.
Development
In its initial phase, Qwant used Bing’s API for searches but started a gradual transition to its own indexing system starting in February 2013. This process lacked personnel and technology. While Qwant promoted its own engine for indexing social media and "shopping" search results, it continued to rely heavily on external APIs.By early 2019, Qwant was considered to be completely reliant on Bing for web and image searches, producing results entirely through the Bing API as Qwant had neither a crawler nor an indexer at the time.
In June 2014, the German publishing group Axel Springer invested 20% in Qwant to support the development of a specialized indexing robot for news in French, aimed at competing with Google News.
On 14 April 2015, Qwant unveiled a new version of its search engine with an updated graphical interface.
In October 2016, the European Investment Bank announced an investment in the company in the form of a €25 million loan over 5 years to expand its reach in Europe.
In February 2017, Qwant announced that it had raised €18.5 million, including €15 million from the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, which has a 20% stake, with the remainder coming from the Axel Springer group.
On 4 July 2018, a new, more streamlined version of Qwant was unveiled, version four; its logo was also changed for this new version.
Restructuring
In May 2019, Qwant announced that it would migrate its servers to an infrastructure based on Microsoft Azure, and also keep some of its indexing capacity on its infrastructure.In January 2020, Jean-Claude Ghinozzi became the CEO of Qwant, replacing Éric Léandri.
At the end of June 2020, Qwant began restructuring. The closure of its Épinal and Ajaccio offices was announced to meet a requirement from major shareholders, the Caisse des dépôts et consignations and Axel Springer.
In 2020, Qwant's net sales increased by 28% to €7.5 million. Losses fell to €13 million from €23.5 million in 2019.
New direction
In 2021, Raphaël Auphan and Corinne Lejbowicz assumed management of Qwant. Rather than aiming to dethrone Google, the new management plans "to build step by step a real ecosystem of private and secure navigation on the Internet."According to the new executives, the old Qwant shone by its opacity:
- the company kept the blur on its actual use
- minimized its use of Bing
- was divided into a dozen legal structures according to the new management, which concealed the extent of the problems.
Qwant discontinued its services in several countries but remained available in 39 countries worldwide.
Partnership with Ecosia and reduced dependency on Microsoft
In 2023, Microsoft dramatically raised Bing's search API rates. Since Qwant relied on Bing to provide results for long tail searches, the change forced Qwant to change its business model. In response, Qwant and Germany's Ecosia teamed up to create a 50–50 joint venture called the European Search Perspective. Qwant will transfer the search indexing infrastructure it was building as well as some of its engineers and data scientists. Ecosia is making a cash contribution.Versions
In June 2017, a version adapted to the Swiss culture was launched and offered in three of the four national languages: German, French, and Italian.In January 2018, Qwant announced its expected arrival in China by the summer of 2018, in partnership with local authorities and companies to adapt it to Chinese laws. The five-year-anniversary version launched in 2018 eliminated the column-based presentation in favor of a more web-friendly presentation. The different types of current/social research remained accessible through a side menu.
On 3 December 2019, Qwant announced the arrival of a new design to "simplify the experience and bring new experiences". In March 2021, a new version was made available online to rejuvenate the interface and make it more accessible on smartphones.
In June 2022, Qwant unveiled a new identity to engage new hearings on the importance of personal data protection.
Features
Qwant offers several types of results in the same search: classic websites, merchant websites and news webs not based on information related to the user's profile. In its early days, the Qwant search engine relied on Bing to provide more relevant results.In 2016, Qwant claimed to be increasingly using its own results from its own exploration robots as a hybrid engine.
In 2020, Qwant claimed to have exceeded 50% of independent results for web searches, and 70% for all researchs.
Business model
Qwant's business model is partly based on cost-per-click through contextual advertising. It also has partnerships with companies such as TripAdvisor, PagesJaunes and DeepL. These serve to enrich the results, such as by DeepL providing its translation service directly on the Qwant results page. Qwant's results are further augmented by the integration of application programming interfaces provided by third-party companies, like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.Privacy
The only cookies Qwant installs are for core functionality and not for advertising. Local storage is also used to save the search engine's parameters, such as the theme, filtering parameters, and the language.The results displayed are not customized according to a search history, as with Google, but instead depend on the general trends of the moment. Since mid-2016, Qwant has been sending data to Microsoft Bing Ads to respond to requests—specifically, the IP/24 of the user, the User-Agent of their browser, and the search keywords. These data were not anonymized but pseudonymized. This was done without informed consent of its users. It did not announce this until mid-2021.
Partnerships
Mozilla Foundation
On 4 July 2016, Qwant announced a global partnership with the Mozilla Foundation. A new version of the Firefox web browser resulted from this partnership, specifically optimized for the use of Qwant. On 2 August 2016, a mobile version was also made available. On this occasion, Qwant said it wanted to reach “5% to 8% market share on the continent by 2018–2019” and "achieve €2.5 million in sales" in 2016. Continuing this partnership, a Qwant app for Android and iOS smartphones was released, based on a fully open source fork of Mozilla Firefox.Qwant's extension for Mozilla Firefox is on the list of free software recommended by the French State as part of the overall modernization of its information systems. While it is published under MIT/X11 license, the engine itself is not open source.
Inria
Qwant partnered with Inria for research on Internet research technologies that respect privacy.Wiko
On 27 March 2019, a partnership between Qwant and Wiko was announced. Wiko launched a new version of its View 2 Pro with Qwant as its default search engine, becoming the first Android phone to not use Google as the default.This was a result of the decision of European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager in July 2018 to impose a fine of €4.34 billion on Google for abuse of its dominant position within the Android operating system.
Fairphone
Qwant announced that it would be the default search engine in the Fairphone 2 smartphone, after partnering with Fairphone.Samsung
On 12 May 2020, Samsung Internet announced a partnership with Qwant to globally deploy the search engine.Huawei
Huawei chose Qwant as the default search engine on its P40 smartphone in France, Germany, and Italy, in response to US sanctions.In May 2021, Qwant's CEO asked shareholders for permission to borrow €8 million from Huawei.
Lexibook
In September 2018, Qwant and Lexibook announced the offering of Qwant products on LexiTab tablets.Brave
Qwant became the default search engine for the Brave browser in France and Germany.Villes Internet
At the end of August 2018, Qwant created Elunum, a search engine for elected officials and territorial agents. This engine was made in cooperation with Villes Internet.HelloAsso
On 14 May 2019, Qwant Causes was launched in partnership with HelloAsso, which was responsible for donations payment.Qobuz
A partnership was signed with the music streaming and downloading service Qobuz, allowing CD-quality online listening of tracks recommended by the search engine in France.DeepL
Qwant launched the first privacy-friendly translation service on its search engine, in partnership with DeepL. Twenty-eight languages can be translated from the Qwant search page.Acquisitions and use of technology
Xilopix
In November 2017, Qwant bought Xilopix, a company based in Lorraine and publisher of the search engine Xaphir, which was experiencing financial difficultiesNvidia
In April 2017, Qwant announced it would be using Nvidia brand supercomputers for deep learning to refine its research results and to rent its computers to startups that needed to use these technologies.Fleksy
Qwant entered a partnership that integrated the search engine into the Fleksy virtual keyboard.Easyvoyage
Qwant partnered with travel comparison site Easyvoyage to supply results for flight and hotel research.Ecosia
In November 2024, Qwant announced that it had partnered with Ecosia in a joint venture to build the European Search Index, a search index created to provide more localized search results in the French and German languages, and to reduce the reliance on Bing and Google.Controversies and disputes
Privacy approach
Qwant was originally a meta-search engine that presented itself as a search engine. Two audits of the Interdepartmental Digital Directorate in July and September 2019 revealed that Qwant did have an index, but that it was not directly related to users' requests. According to co-founder Éric Léandri, Qwant does not want to compete with Google, but simply "show something different".When launched in February 2013, Qwant did not advertise itself as privacy-focused.
Dependence on Bing
Due to its results being very similar to Bing and Wikipedia, a new version of the engine was published in April 2015, still based on the Bing API, but without clearly displaying it as required by the Bing API.With dated results, the technical appendix of the first audit notes inconsistencies in cache management and cannot exclude situations where all cached data can come from the Bing API and not from Qwant's internal robots, especially since the team does not know precisely how to answer questions about the exact sequence of treatments, nor how to quantify its actual level of use of Bing. In the summer of 2016, in preparation for an audit conducted by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations with a view to an entry into the capital of Qwant, a code amendment to reduce the use of the Bing API took place a few days before the audit.
In March 2017, according to La Lettre A, the investment bank Bpifrance refused to participate in the raising of funds due to concerns about Qwant's use of technologies provided by Microsoft and servers at Huawei.
Éric Léandri confirmed the use of results from Microsoft's search engine, Bing, to supplement the results generated by the Qwant algorithm, as well as the use of Bing's advertising department. It disputed that Bpifrance had access to Qwant's internal documents, even though Bpifrance had financed several projects and therefore had access to some of these internal documents, to the point of making an event.
However, in 2019, an audit of the DINUM led to explain the dependence on Bing, and even seek to measure it: it would be 60% of answers provided by Bing, without however being able to determine with certainty if everything would not come from the internal caches of Qwant — powered by Bing. On 25 September 2019, the French interministerial Digital Directorate assessed in a technical audit report that Qwant's dependency on Microsoft Bing was at 64%. During a Bing API outage in 2024, Qwant stopped showing results, indicating that Bing provided a substantial portion of Qwant's results.
CEO conduct
In September 2019, NextInpact revealed that CEO Éric Léandri threatened Qwant employees at the end of 2016.In March 2017, after fundraising with the participation of the Caisse des dépôts et consignations, and after the refusal of funding by Bpifrance because of this strong dependence on Bing's API, new press articles touched on Qwant's use of several technologies, algorithms, and advertising governance, provided by Microsoft.
Logo similarity with Google
In its early stages, the similarity of its first logo with that of Google was pointed out.A few days after its launch in July 2013, it was accused by the designers of the Canadian search engine GooL.li, launched in 2012, of plagiarizing its interface.
Mohamed Kahlain, co-founder of GooL.li, announced that he did not want to sue Qwant and said that he was not aware of the interface change.
In March 2017, Qwant, through the Open Internet Project, of which it is a member, accused Google of anti-competitive practices and filed a complaint with the European Commission in Brussels.
Miscellaneous
In July 2019, La Lettre A revealed that Qwant had been questioned by its main shareholder Caisse des dépôts et Consignations on Qwant's twenty highest salaries; the letter talks about wages that are “manifestly indecent”.CNIL and the Qwant - Microsoft Partnership
In February 2025, France's National Commission on Informatics and Liberty issued a legal reminder to Qwant, stating that the data processed by the search engine to Microsoft was personal data rather than anonymous data.Functionality
Research
With a new design released in 2022, the goal is to educate new audiences, especially younger ones, on the importance of protecting personal data.The homepage has a space dedicated to content about the challenges of protecting digital personal data. A horizontal strip houses the search bar as well as to access other services of the brand such as news.
Based on a given request, Qwant will highlight direct access to information insert, for clearer and faster information. The Lite version is always accessible.
Qwick
Similar to DuckDuckGo, Qwant allows performing redirect queries to other search engines or sites by typing the corresponding command called Qwick.Active services
Qwant Lite
On 5 October 2015, Qwant unveiled a Lite version of its search engine, intended for older browsers, aging terminals, and low-speed Internet connections.This streamlined version of the website did not use JavaScript or CSS3, technologies deemed too resource-consuming.
Qwant Junior
Qwant Junior is a search engine for children aged 6–12 with no advertising, e-commerce and NSFW elements. Since 2018, it is available on Android and iOS mobile devices.It launched experimentally in several French schools in January 2015, in partnership with the French National Education, and was released as a final version in February 2015.
Since March 2023, Qwant Junior has partnered with the BayaM app, designed by publishers Bayard Jeunesse and Milan, to offer educational content to children aged 6–12.
Qwant Music
Qwant Music is a search engine for albums and artists developed in collaboration with Ircam and Qobuz.On 3 June 2016, the beta version of Qwant Music is launched, enabling searching for artists, albums and titles.
In September 2017, Qwant Music was detached as a subsidiary based in Ajaccio, Corsica.
On 8 June 2018, the final version of Qwant Music was released.
Qwant VIPrivacy
Qwant VIPrivacy is a browser extension for blocking trackers and cookies when browsing the internet, while using Qwant as the browser's default search engine.Qwant@Work
Launched in January 2023, Qwant@Work is a service dedicated to businesses, administrations, and organizations, enabling them to protect the navigation of their employees by limiting the collection of personal data.The extension installs Qwant as the default search engine.
Discontinued services
Masq by Qwant
Masq by Qwant was a personal data storage service designed to personalize Qwant's service to users without collecting personal data. It was initially released as an alpha version on 27 June 2019 and later discontinued on 17 September 2020, because it "does not meet the expectations of most users".Qwant Causes
Qwant unveiled Qwant Causes at the MWC in Barcelona, from 25–28 February 2019. Similar in concept to Lilo and Ecosia, it was a search engine that allowed funding a project while conducting searches respecting the privacy of the users of not wishing to create an account. The service was launched in partnership with HelloAsso, which offered its beneficiary associations to benefit from the service. On the results pages of a query, more advertisements were displayed to fund these associations of general interest, without impacting Qwant's revenue.The service was discontinued on 30 April 2020, because of "insufficient use of societal and associative issues addressed".
Qwant Boards
Qwant Boards allowed the sharing of images, videos, websites, or messages.On 27 August 2020, publishing new notebooks and accessing other users' notebooks was disabled, and user data was made available for download until a year later. The company's explained concerning the shutdown of this service:
Qwant Junior Education
This was a version of Qwant Junior where teachers of French National Education could open a session through their academic email address.Qwant School
Qwant School was a filtered version of the Qwant search engine designed for teens, especially middle school students.Like Qwant Junior, it did not display any advertising, online commerce links, or any violent or pornographic content to be displayed, although its filters were otherwise somewhat less restrictive
Qwant Maps
Qwant Maps mapping service, based on OpenStreetMap, was released in alpha version on 4 December 2018.The service went into beta on 27 June 2019, and came out in a final version in 2021.
Qwant Maps had most of the features of a classic online map, namely finding routes, and places of interest.
On 20 May 2024, Qwant announced on X that they were discontinuing Qwant Maps, replacing it with a "Maps module" integrated into the engine.
Qwant IoT
At VivaTech in May 2018, Qwant announced Qwant loT, the development of a search engine for the Internet of Things, in partnership with Kuzzle.QwantMed
QwantMed was a tool to protect private medical data.Usage
Qwant became the default search engine for the French Ministry of armies' computer stations on 2 October 2018.On 30 January 2019, the aeronautical company Safran standardized the use of Qwant as a search engine within the company.
In April 2019, the National Centre for Space Studies decided to use Qwant as the default search engine for all collaborators of its four centers of excellence, including the launch site of Ariane 5 and Ariane 6, the Guiana Space Centre, Europe's spaceport.
The French administration announced that Qwant would be the default search engine on all its computer stations by 30 April 2020.
Popularity
Qwant reported 3.5 million monthly views shortly after its launch, which grew to 17.7 million by February 2016 with traffic doubling in the preceding six months.In May 2016, the site claimed 21 million visits with 50% of visits coming from France and 30% from Germany.
In November 2016, it claimed nearly 27 million monthly visits and 37 million at the beginning of 2017.
At the end of July 2017, Qwant claimed 40 million monthly visits. It was also reported that Qwant held a 2% market share in France and 1% in Germany.
In June 2018, Qwant claimed to be the second most used search engine in France, and to have entered the top 50 most visited websites in France and the top 1,000 worldwide.
This information is confirmed by the SimilarWeb site, but contradicted by the StatCounter site, which instead supports these figures: between June 2017 and June 2018, Qwant is the fifth search engine in France in terms of market share, with 0.55% against 90.99% for Google.
In October 2018, in an interview for Usine nouvelle magazine, for the Nugget of the Year award, Qwant explained the evolution of its popularity: 2.6 billion requests in 2016, 9.7 billion in 2017, and 18 billion in 2018.
In 2018, this would amount to 1.6 billion requests per month.
In April 2018, nearly 81% of its traffic came from France, followed by Germany and Italy.
In the first half of 2020, Qwant was the fourth most popular search engine in France, behind Google, Bing and Yahoo, and ahead of Ecosia and DuckDuckGo.
In August 2020, 79% of its traffic came from France, 7% from Germany, and 3% from the United States.
As of February 2021, according to SimilarWeb, 51.78% of its traffic is from France, 10.96% from the US, 9.23% from Germany, 2.81% from Canada, and 2.76% from Italy.
Reception
France's Minister of Economics Emmanuel Macron called Qwant the "French Google".Privacy advocacy
In September 2021, Qwant became available in all European countries and made it to the top 5 search engines available on Android phones. The European Commission signed the "choice screen" on Android phones teams in June 2021, and Qwant contributed to the passage of this resolution.On 25 November 2021, Qwant publicly announced its contribution to the development of the "Manifesto of French startups" by the association France Digitale, intending to bring concrete proposals related to digital for the 2022 presidential election.
In January 2023, for Data Privacy Day, Qwant released the first edition of its online privacy barometer alongside Proton, Murena and Olvid.