Google has lost nearly 10 points of desktop market share in the past five years. That’s roughly how much Bing, the winner of this change in trend, has grown.
Google has seemed invincible for many years, and its dominance has only recently been challenged by generative artificial intelligence. The reality is that it has seen a slow but gradual decline in its desktop PC market share for more than five years, according to data from StatCounter.
Because it’s importantTo say “web search” is to say “Google.” In fact, we use the phrase “I’ll Google it.” Metaphor is something few people have access to. A change in this role could have profound consequences for the entire industry.
Moreover, there may be something else: if Google lost its share, it was because someone gained it. And although Yandex has grown a lot in this time, the one who benefited from this change in direction is Bing.
Context. Google remains the undisputed leader and its problems are the desire of any competitor. But this dominance is no longer as overwhelming as it was before the pandemic.
In this time, between enforcing it as the default option and efforts to improve the product as part of the ecosystem, Microsoft has been able to position Bing as a viable alternative, and has gained increasing confidence.
the main points:
- Google’s share was more than 91% just over five years ago, and now it barely exceeds 80%.
- Bing has grown quite steadily. From barely over 3% at the end of 2018, it now has more than 11% of the market share.
- Hey ho! Other search engines maintain a marginal presence.
The role of the edge. Microsoft has doubled its commitment to its own browser. First, he ported it to Chromium to increase its compatibility and versatility, and then made it the protagonist of many new features, as well as in generative AI.
This success of Edge has also allowed it to direct many users to its search engine. There are more details, but this is the main explanation for this development. More than a year ago we predicted that Google had reason to be concerned.
In perspective. Although Google continues to dominate, the trend in recent years suggests a more competitive search engine market than we are accustomed to. Not to mention the influence that chatbots like ChatGPT have in the search market.
Bing’s growth demonstrates that even in such a seemingly saturated market, there is room for innovation and change. Although the resources Microsoft needed to achieve this are not available to everyone.
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