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Ask HN: How much did it cost to develop Google Chrome?

7 points by federicoterzi ↗ HN
Today I was wondering how much it could cost to develop Google Chrome from scratch.

I couldn't find any specific info online, but given that it's been around for more than 12 years, I suspect it's in the order of hundreds of millions if not billions.

Do you know anything more specific?

5 comments

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bwb
I doubt it is billions... but i am curious as well... my estimate is under 100 million.
thesuperbigfrog
I do not think you will get specifics.

Those who know the specifics are likely under non-disclosure agreements and unable to tell without exposing themselves to legal risks.

sova
Isn't Chromium open source since [insert year here] and therefore free labor for the G?
jaredsohn
While it is possible for people at large to make contributions (did so myself) a large majority of Chromium developers are paid by Google.

If you look around https://bugs.chromium.org/, you'll see that most developers have google.com email addresses.

jituc
That cannot be answered specifically as its distributed in many of small projects, my modest guess will be around 200 millions for development and total 400-500 millions for including all advertising and other marketing campaigns.[ie. Unaccountable price to place on google homepage for multiple years]