In the past, Netscape, Opera and Safari (for Windows) tried it as paid software, but failed and started distributing it for free.
Firefox and Opera started offering VPN and Mozilla integrated other products into its browser in the form of subscriptions (Monitor, E-mail Relay, Pocket, for example).
In the Android mobile world, there is a great diversity of strange, weird browsers that I look at with a certain level of suspicion.
You need a good market and feasibility study to make this leap.
My briefing is:
1: the price needs to be regionalized.
It reflects an attempt to make it more accessible, promote digital inclusion in markets with lower purchasing power, while maximizing global reach.
As an example, in Brazil Netflix costs $4/m and many find it too expensive and share their logins and split the bill.
Speaking of Lat Am, South Am and Brazil, many don’t have an international credit card, so you require a solution like https://international.pagseguro.com/solutions to allow regionalized payments or some wallet solution (like Google Pay, PayPal, …).
2: Maybe, a focus on the corporate environment?
One option, apart from Edge and probably the unknown Puffin, I don’t know of another with a focus on the corporate environment. A more restricted extension store, with audited extensions, better handling of zero-days and CVEs and some level of support.
Where I currently work because it has connectivity to the Tor network and an embedded VPN, Brave is not well accepted.
3: how to add value and attract subscribers?
Backing in the 1st item, Zoho is the most used suite in Africa due to the price and SMB support, to give them a Browser and extension with support to suite solution with a few costs, it’s a great deal.
This is the same scenario at LATAM and SA. Most SME companies here use small hosting providers and web CRMs, they’ve never thought about browsers.
Develop exclusive extensions that integrate corporate solutions such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Proton, Atlassian, SAP, Adobe and other suites.
I currently work with Ms365 (which has discontinued its extension to force migration to Edge) and also with the Atlassian Suite, which makes a point of consuming all the RAM in open tabs.
Extensions that allow you to bookmark and improve the navigation and speed of these suites would be very attractive.
But maybe it’s too small a niche? Too many extensions to develop or open source developers to attract (a rewards program for them?)
There are many other points to talk, but, The model “pay once” is not commercial healthy, answering a probable subscription to Brave version, potentially yes.