Google's Market Share Falls Below 90% for the First Time in Nearly a Decade"

 

Google's Market Share Falls Below 90% for the First Time in Nearly a Decade"

According to a Search Engine Land report that referenced Statcounter data, Google's share of the global search engine market dropped below 90% in the last quarter of 2024. This marked the first time since 2015 that this occurred.

The report states that Google's market share was 89.34% in October 2024, 89.99% in November, and 89.73% in December.

The last time Google's market share fell below 90% was in March 2015, when it dropped to 89.52%. It had also decreased in February (89.47%) and January (89.62%) of that year. The report indicates that this decline reflects a broader trend of Google losing search market share, particularly in Asia, while its share remained relatively stable in other regions.

In the US, Google's search engine market share reached a peak of 90.37% in November, but dropped to 87.39% in December.

It is unclear whether users are shifting to AI-based search engines like ChatGPT Search and Perplexity, as Statcounter primarily tracks traditional search engines such as Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia. However, Bing, Yandex, and Yahoo have captured some of Google’s lost market share, with Bing securing second place, holding just under 4% of the market during the last five months of 2024.

This shift comes at a time when Google has faced nearly two years of criticism over the diminishing usefulness of its search results, despite maintaining a disputed monopoly status in the US, with a consistent market share of 90-92% for almost a decade, according to the report.