28 Startling Search Engine Market Share Statistics

The evolution of search engines has enabled them to understand intent, provide refinement in information searching and utilization, and yet, new search marketing trends are emerging by the day. 

The uninterrupted absorbing of the market in online searches has earned Google the Almighty roughly $160.74 billion. Until present, it has not faltered in leading users to relevant websites which is why it has an enormous chunk of the search engine market share. Data, however, shows other search engines as quite resourceful in assisting marketers target different audiences as they continue to prevail and grow despite it all. Read on to learn all about it.

• At the start of 2020, Google held 87.35% of the global desktop market share. 
• Google accounts for 88.21% of all US search queries.
• Yandex Ru is almost winning over the Russian market with 42.35% of search traffic. 
• Baidu is the emperor of China’s search market with 65.35%.
• Yahoo! Japan snatches almost 20% of the market share from Google.  
• Zero-click searches are on the rise with over 60% participation.  
• Voice searches will own 50% of the search market by the end of 2020. 
• The compound annual growth rate of the next-generation search engine market expected at 25.5%.
• 46% of Google searches are aimed at obtaining local information.

We cannot discuss search engine usage without considering the number of users. With 1 billion internet users, East Asia is the leader in this segment while China with 854 million users, India with 560, and the US with 292 million are the countries with the highest number of internet users in the world. Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, and North America are the regions generating the highest number of traffic.

(Statista, Statista)

Exactly ten years ago Google’s share in desktop searches, according to stats on search engine market share, was an astonishing 90.77% and 10 years later it is still dominant with 87.35%. The Bing market share meanwhile has moved from 3.41% in 2010 to 5.53% in 2020. Over the same period, Baidu noted growth from 0.36% to 0.7%, while Yahoo’s usage dropped by almost 2% to 2.83% in January 2020. The fifth most used search engine is Russia’s Yandex RU which holds 0.76% of the global search traffic. 

(Statista)

When it comes to searches carried out on mobile phones, the trophy for the largest global search engine market share again goes to Google with its 95.62% market share. The market share of search engines other than Google in regards to mobile traffic is rather different. Mobile phone searches are preferred on Baidu as it is ranked second with 1.29% in this category. Yahoo tries to keep pace with Baidu on this with 0.93% and Bing is ranked fourth with 0.49%. 

(StatCounter)

US search engine market share data shows that Google leads the pack but in this section, Bing has a slightly more favorable position compared to other players with 6.55% of all platforms search traffic, 12.84% of mobile, and 14.15% of tablet searches. Yahoo makes up 3.65% while DuckDuckGo as a search engine that offers private and secure connections is used in 1.24% of the search queries with a somewhat higher percentage of tablet searches at 2.2%. Americans also like to use MSN and Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees.

(StatCounter)

Search engine traffic statistics indicate that almost 1 in 10 or 14% of Canadians search on Bing. Of course, the remaining 80% use Google but with Yahoo powered by Bing, the Bing market share in Canada should not be neglected. Naturally, if you are aiming for higher search volume, taking into account the search engine’s users is definitely a good strategy for your Canadian market move. 

(Aborg)

According to statistics on search engine market share for the UK, Brits also like to ‘Bing it’. And although Google generates 83.91% of all desktop searches in the UK, since May 2019, Bing usage has increased from 8.83% to 11.22% and has been growing at a somewhat steady rate. Brits are also fond of Yahoo and DuckDuckGo desktop searches and interestingly, 0.09% of the search engine traffic is conducted through Symantec’s Corporation developed Norton Safe Search. 

(StatCounter)

Search engine market share by country varies and if you are going for the Russian and even the East European market, Yandex is the real deal as it is available also in Cyrillic, meaning the chances of reaching a wider audience are much higher. In fact, Google’s share in Russian stands as ‘low’ as 54.94%, while 42.35% is owned by Yandex Ru which is also popular in Ukraine, China, Belarus, and Germany. Mail Ru which started off as an email service is also popular among the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet with 2.69% of the desktop search engine market share. 

(StatCounter)

Google is not all-powerful in Asia as it only captures 2.87% of the Chinese search market. The dom of the Chinese search engine market, Baidu as opposed to Google blends paid results with organic listings and allows brands to pay their way up. Sogou or the “searching dog” generates 17.56% of the search traffic while Hasou is the third most used search engine in China with 8.48%. Interestingly, tablet-generated traffic on the China search engine market share points to Baidu as the dominant search engine with 94.31% but more importantly, it is also massively used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

(StatCounter)

If you are considering building an SEM strategy for the Japanese market, you need to also consider Yahoo as it continues to demonstrate a strong market presence, especially in mobile and tablet search traffic where it holds a little over 24% and 27%, respectively. Google search engine market share in Japan hovers between 70% and 76%. Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Baidu also make up considerable market share in Japan with Bing making up almost 6% of desktop searches. 

(StatCounter)

And while the highest percentage of organic mobile search engine traffic in America was done on Google, in this segment DuckDuckGo is a relatively strong competitor. However, even though DuckDuckGo’s share is now a solid 58%, according to search engine statistics, it notes a drop compared to the 62% seen in the first quarter of 2019. Data from the last quarter of 2019 indicate 49% of Yahoo’s organic search was done on mobile devices while Bing accounts for 23% of the market share. 

(Statista)

There has been a shift between the Google and Amazon market share in recent years. Google processes around 3.5 billion product searches per day but more than half start on Amazon.com. This does not really affect the Google search engine market share but it does affect Google’s PPC advertising as Amazon has recently invested in advertising services which make it possible for companies to advertise their products across the website and product searches. 

(WebFX)

The latest data about the search engine industry point to a rising trend of zero-click searches. Paid click searches are slowly but surely rising with around 10% participation and will continue to do so while since January 2016, as search engine stats show, zero-click searches have been steadily growing from around 50% to more than 60% in March 2019. Organic searches, on the other hand, note a slight decline to under 40% in 2019 compared to 2016.

(Search Engine Watch)

At the beginning of 2018, DuckDuckGo had around 16 million searches per day which within two years jumped to around 49 million due to its popularity and the growing obsession with online privacy. DuckDuckGo’s search engine statistics mention a daily record of over 66 million queries and a monthly search number hovering around 1.6 billion meaning that its clear interface, privacy features, and simple navigation it is worthy of being regarded as the sixth top search engine with 0.45% of market share.  

(DuckDuckGo, WebFX)

Former Ask Jeeves or Ask.com that is based on questions asked and answered by users or polls is the seventh most used search engine in the world with 0.42% of the search engine market share although the returned results lack quality. AOL an old-timer in the search engine story whose network includes popular websites such as techchrunch.com, and huffingtonpost.com. is still among the top 10 most widely used search engines with 0.05% of the market share. AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications back in 2015. 

(Reliablesoft)

With the rise of mobile use, there is a rise of paid mobile search click share of Google and Microsoft Advertising (Bing) on the US market and it amounts to 69% and 29% respectively. When it comes to paid mobile searches, Bing is doing better than Google with tablets. Search engine traffic statistics for the first quarter of 2020 indicate Bing with 6% of paid mobile search clicks as opposed to Google’s 3%. However, in the paid mobile search click segment, Google is way ahead with 67% as opposed to Bing’s 23%.

(Statista)

Windows’ default search engine is generally used by people who like it or those that don’t know how to download and install a different browser. Search engine statistics reveal that 85% of Bing users are located in the US but what is also typical for them is that they are less knowledgeable about tech, are more blue-collar and the majority are over 35. 

(Aborg)

30% of men and 70% of women use Google and in regards to age, it is used by people of all ages — from 25 to 65. In considering Google search engine market share it is important to note it is massively used by both B2B and B2C websites. Audience demographic is of utmost importance for any niche ecommerce company to be able to provide a clear value proposition and establish the key reasons why someone would wish to buy a company’s products or services. 

(Hallam)

With a 50%-50% share between men and women, Bing is living proof of gender equilibrium. But what is also interesting is that the Bing market share is made up of rich people. Search engine marketing statistics that might be useful if you are selling high-end fashion accessories or luxury sports cars are that over 54% of Bing users rely on a household income higher than $75,000 while 38% enjoy an income higher than $100,000.

(Zakandzu)

What Google and Bing have in common is that neither of them owns one of the ecommerce monopolies such as Amazon, OfferUp, or GumTree which is why they partner up. This partnership allows Bing to reach over a third of all online retail searches and search engine optimization statistics indicate that Bing’s shopping campaigns display a 45% higher CTR and an average cost of CPC on shopping ads 30% lower than the Google average. The median cost to acquire a customer meanwhile costs 40% less via Bing shopping. 

(Word Stream)

Bing is quite transparent in disclosing search partners’ details, including impressions and conversion rates. Bing users are generally more engaged when it comes to pay-per-click ads, search engine stats indicate. This might have to do with the fact that they are more mature and know exactly what they can afford but this same tendency is shown when they are sent to post-click landing pages. All this ultimately leads to significantly higher or 10% to 56% higher conversion rates than those of Google Ads. 

(Instapage)

With 58% of Americans using voice search to find a local business, it seems VPAs as an extension of an existing search engine also impact search engine use statistics, especially in regards to the Google vs Bing play as Bing owns three of the four most used VPAs. Microsoft Cortana, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri are all powered by Bing and comprise almost 80% of the VPA usage. At present, Bing appears to be ahead of Google as it has recognized the importance of voice search on time and the fact that it represents a huge opportunity for SEOs and digital marketers. But do not worry, things are not so bad for Google as surveys state that Microsoft’s Cortana has superior speech recognition but Google Assistance has a much more accurate understanding of context. 

(Search Engine Land)

Good ranking is an absolute must as 75% of searchers click on the link ranked highest and never even bother to look further. Additionally, 93% of web traffic is conducted through a search engine which further emphasizes the importance of SEO as the galvanizer of organic search ranking performance on SERP. 

(Blue Opps)

With the emerging Google Assistant, and the Siris and Alexas as the new queens of households across the US and with 13% of all US households owning smart speakers back in 2017, a number which as search engine usage stats say, is expected to go over 55% by 2022, voice searches are beginning to challenge the norms of the search engine industry. What is more, soon 30% of web browsing will be screenless and by the end of 2020, 50% of all queries will be voiced.

(WordStream)

In 2019 the next generation search engine industry was valued at $14.87 billion but projections are that by 2025 it will grow to an astonishing $55.68 billion. Search engine facts indicate major progress in voice-activated capabilities of various devices which are beginning to turn voice queries into the mainstream which ultimately brings more possibilities for the market. So next time you write your marketing content, try and make it more conversational so it can be located by users who voice search.  

(Mordor Intelligence)

Desktop searches noted a decline in 2019 to 45.53% with 50.71% of the search traffic done on mobile which caused a gap that remains even today. This indicates that desktop searches might be seeing a continuous decline. But how does this affect SEO? Search engine optimization statistics mention that currently, only 13% of websites are available across all devices. And if your website is ranking well on desktop it might not be doing so on mobile. Moreover, one-third of the websites that appear on the first page of desktop queries do not appear in the top 10 on mobile. 

(Smart Insights)

Still wondering why local SEO strategy is important? A staggering 88% of consumers who search locally on their mobile phones will surely visit the store they searched for on the very same day. Search engine marketing statistics further indicate that in 18% of the cases, these local searches lead to money spending as opposed to 7% of non-local searches. In the past few years, this type of search notes growth by over 900%.

(Hub Spot)

Even though GMB is free of charge and very easy to use, only 44% of local retailers have it. And in regards to other search engines and the listings they offer for SMB, search engine marketing statistics mention that only 33% have claimed theirs on Yelp, 21% on Yahoo, and 18% on Bing. Moreover, of the 23% of local retailers who are actively managing their online listings, over half rely on DIY which proves to be very difficult for newbies who are not that skilled in the ways of the local search ecosystem. 

(LSA Insider)

Organic search engine optimization generates 53% of the trackable web traffic while paid searches are only accountable for 27% of the web traffic. Search engine optimization statistics, however, confirm that when these two are used in combination, they are unstoppable as they generate 68% of the trackable website traffic. Considering that paid searches are placed at the very top of the search ranking, it is amazing that users still prefer highly ranked organic results.  

(Smart Insights)

The global digital population is made up of 1.32 billion people of which 1.08 billion rely on mobile phone connections, 453.2 million are internet users and 217.5 are active social media users. Taking into account that 93% of all web traffic is via search engines, it is safe to conclude that more than one billion people use search engines.

The latest data points to these as the top 5 most popular search engines in the world:

• Google -87.35%

• Bing -5.53%

• Baidu-0.7%

• Yahoo!-2.83%

• Yandex-0.76%

Google is practically as popular as online search is. In fact, it is so popular that people across the world do not even change the word but simply adopt it as part of their language. After all,  everyone knows what Google is but more importantly, everyone knows what the phrase “Google it” means.

Crawler-based search engines are the most widely used. Namely, these use a bot, spider, or crawler for indexing new content while searching the database and follow four basic steps before delivering results. Google, for example, uses crawlers to index the search and then moves to calculate the relevancy of the results and finally retrieves results and displays what is relevant to the user. Search engine facts show that the second type is human-powered directories or open directory systems that depend on human-based activities and provide users with a limited number of relevant results. Examples of such search engines are ApexKB, ChaCha, Mahalo.com. Finally, the hybrid search engines are a mix of the two.

From seeking knowledge to self-discovery and personal growth, search engines have been fundamentally changing our lives for over two decades making the internet a window to a new world where the digital meets almost all needs. Diving deep into information about the search engine market share means getting one step closer to learning how you as a marketer can exploit the latest search engine market trends to maximize your target audience reach. 

Sources:

Statista

Statista

Statista

StatCounter

StatCounter

Aborg

StatCounter

StatCounter

StatCounter

StatCounter

Statista

WebFX

Search Engine Watch

DuckDuckGo

WebFX

Statista

Aborg

Hallam

Zakandzu

Statista

Statista

Word Stream

Instapage

Search Engine Land

Blue Opps

WordStream

Mordor Intelligence

Smart Insights

Hub Spot

LSA Insider

Smart Insights