StatCounter recently updated its data detailing the search engine marketplace across most of 2021, displaying each individual company share from month to month.
Well, with the search engine market getting so saturated, and competition pouring in left and right, one would expect there to be a few key players, with every other app scrounging for a cut of the overall profits? I mean, the smartphone industry, social media industry, and many others are similar, right? If you had such an opinion, I regret to inform you that such an assumption is completely incorrect. The search engine marketplace is effectively (and whatever other adjectives fit) a monopoly, with Google Search reigning supreme and literally every other engine having less than a 10 percent cut of what exists. Ouch. While I’m not particularly surprised at these results, with Google Search being an incredibly popular engine after all, such notable disparity between Google and literally everything else is probably something that wasn’t expected by everyone. However, a lot of it just boils down to luck, effective marketing, and money being invested into ventures left and right. Let’s take a look at some numbers, and then discuss Google’s current stranglehold on the market.
To start things off, very interestingly, Google Search has actually seen a net loss of its market share on a year over year basis. December 2020 saw the platform at an astounding 92.16%, but November 2021 led the platform to an oh-so-dismal 91.42%. A total loss of 0.74% of the shares,? Oh golly gee, it really does look like Google is on its last wheels. Jokes aside, there has been next to no fluctuation in the numbers for one of Google’s most treasured products (arguably the company’s flagship product, even), while others have been doing not all too well. If we look at the December 2021 data (featured below), the picture is even brighter for Google. There are only four other search engines that even get mentioned in the report, with all others unceremoniously shoved into the “other” category. Of these four, Bing has been doing the best, ending 2021 with a 3.14% share of the marketplace. Yahoo, Baidu, and Yandex can barely be deciphered from each other due to all of them having approximately a 1% share respectively. Other search engines such as DuckDuckGo, despite enjoying recent surges in popularity, are nowhere to be seen and therefore have a long ladder to climb before getting to the top.
As a matter of fact, the only region where Google Search isn’t absolutely annihilating its competition is North America, with literally every other place having the popular search engine owning over 90% of the marketplace. So, what makes North America so different and unique? I believe much of it can be traced to a generally raised awareness regarding different search engine options, and how the likes of Google Search can lead to a user’s personal information being traded off to third-party targeted advertisers. Even then, however, Google’s standing in at an astounding 88.79% in November, 2021. In fact, while other search engines have naturally performed a tad bit better, the only significant rise can be observed in Bing’s share of the search engine marketplace, jumping from a worldwide 3.14% to a relatively significant 5.93%.
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Well, with the search engine market getting so saturated, and competition pouring in left and right, one would expect there to be a few key players, with every other app scrounging for a cut of the overall profits? I mean, the smartphone industry, social media industry, and many others are similar, right? If you had such an opinion, I regret to inform you that such an assumption is completely incorrect. The search engine marketplace is effectively (and whatever other adjectives fit) a monopoly, with Google Search reigning supreme and literally every other engine having less than a 10 percent cut of what exists. Ouch. While I’m not particularly surprised at these results, with Google Search being an incredibly popular engine after all, such notable disparity between Google and literally everything else is probably something that wasn’t expected by everyone. However, a lot of it just boils down to luck, effective marketing, and money being invested into ventures left and right. Let’s take a look at some numbers, and then discuss Google’s current stranglehold on the market.
To start things off, very interestingly, Google Search has actually seen a net loss of its market share on a year over year basis. December 2020 saw the platform at an astounding 92.16%, but November 2021 led the platform to an oh-so-dismal 91.42%. A total loss of 0.74% of the shares,? Oh golly gee, it really does look like Google is on its last wheels. Jokes aside, there has been next to no fluctuation in the numbers for one of Google’s most treasured products (arguably the company’s flagship product, even), while others have been doing not all too well. If we look at the December 2021 data (featured below), the picture is even brighter for Google. There are only four other search engines that even get mentioned in the report, with all others unceremoniously shoved into the “other” category. Of these four, Bing has been doing the best, ending 2021 with a 3.14% share of the marketplace. Yahoo, Baidu, and Yandex can barely be deciphered from each other due to all of them having approximately a 1% share respectively. Other search engines such as DuckDuckGo, despite enjoying recent surges in popularity, are nowhere to be seen and therefore have a long ladder to climb before getting to the top.
As a matter of fact, the only region where Google Search isn’t absolutely annihilating its competition is North America, with literally every other place having the popular search engine owning over 90% of the marketplace. So, what makes North America so different and unique? I believe much of it can be traced to a generally raised awareness regarding different search engine options, and how the likes of Google Search can lead to a user’s personal information being traded off to third-party targeted advertisers. Even then, however, Google’s standing in at an astounding 88.79% in November, 2021. In fact, while other search engines have naturally performed a tad bit better, the only significant rise can be observed in Bing’s share of the search engine marketplace, jumping from a worldwide 3.14% to a relatively significant 5.93%.
Read next: The Importance of Mobile Optimization for Websites (infographic)