Six months after the debut of the AI-powered New Bing, the search engine landscape remains largely unchanged, both in the U.S. and globally.
Despite the initial hype, direct visits to the ChatGPT site have shown signs of a slowdown. A quick glance at the major stat counters reveals that Bing’s share of the search market remains stuck in a state of surprising inertia.
Prior to the launch of Microsoft’s AI-driven browser in January, Bing’s market share languished at a mere 3%. As we move into late summer 2023, these figures appear largely stagnant.
Current Search Engine Market Share – 2025
| Search Engine | Desktop | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| 79.1% | 93.88% | |
| Bing | 11.92% | 0.84% |
| Yahoo | 2.99% | 0.64% |
| Yandex | 3.02% | 2.38% |
Google remains the undisputed leader in the search engine market, commanding over 90% of the global share—nearly nine times the combined total of all other search engines.
The dominance is largely attributed to Google’s unmatched ability to deliver highly relevant search results for virtually any query.
The closest challenger to Google is Microsoft Bing, which holds a modest 3.7% of the market. While this figure is far from threatening Google’s supremacy, it positions Bing as the second most popular search engine worldwide.
Next is Yandex, a regional search engine with a global market share of 1.8%. While its overall presence is modest, it dominates in certain regions, particularly in Russia, where it is three times more popular than Google.
Yahoo! follows with a 1.2% market share. However, as we’ll explore later, Yahoo!’s share has been steadily declining over the past decade, and if this trend continues, it may soon disappear from the list of major players.
Beyond these, other search engines make up less than 1% of the market share. These are typically niche or regional engines, popular only in specific areas or offering a unique value proposition that differentiates them from the giants.
How The Search Engine Market Share Changed Over Time
The search engine market is in a constant state of flux, with companies vying for dominance and adjusting their strategies to maintain or expand their influence.
Here’s an in-depth breakdown of how the market share of the top five search engines has changed over the past ten years…
| Year | Google market share |
| 2015 | 90.61 |
| 2016 | 92.01 |
| 2017 | 92.09 |
| 2018 | 91.4 |
| 2019 | 92.63 |
| 2020 | 92.08 |
| 2021 | 92.01 |
| 2022 | 92.07 |
| 2023 | 92.38 |
| 2024 | 90.83 |
Bing
| Year | Bing market share |
| 2015 | 3.02 |
| 2016 | 2.79 |
| 2017 | 2.76 |
| 2018 | 2.82 |
| 2019 | 2.44 |
| 2020 | 2.7 |
| 2021 | 2.58 |
| 2022 | 3.19 |
| 2023 | 2.97 |
| 2024 | 3.7 |
Bing’s market share remained relatively stable, fluctuating within a single percentage point from 2015 to 2023. However, in 2024, it experienced a notable increase, reaching 3.7%—its highest share to date.
This surge in market share can likely be attributed to the launch of Microsoft Copilot (formerly known as Bing Chat), which generated significant attention last year.
Since then, Google has also integrated AI into its search engine, unveiling its own chatbot, Gemini. Despite this, Bing maintains its first-mover advantage, having set the pace for AI-driven search innovation.
In July 2024, Bing’s U.S. search market share stood at 6.47%, according to web analytics service StatCounter. Meanwhile, Google’s dominance persists, with its desktop search market share hovering near 90%. Bing’s market share remains a mere fraction of Google’s.
When Microsoft unveiled the New Bing, it was positioned as a direct challenge to Google, with ambitions of eroding its substantial share of the search market. Yet, the anticipated disruption has failed to materialise, and pinpointing the reasons behind this remains elusive.
Microsoft has disputed third-party data on Bing’s market share. According to an article published today by The Wall Street Journal, the company argues that third-party data providers are overlooking a significant portion of users who are accessing Bing’s chat page directly.
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s Chief Marketing Officer for Consumer Products, emphasised that internal data suggests Bing is, in fact, gaining market share—indicating a broader perspective on the numbers at play.
“We’ve made more progress in the last six months than we have in the previous decade or two combined. We’re delighted with our star.,” Mehdi said.
“Google’s position as the longstanding frontrunner in the internet search has shown remarkable resilience. Over the years, users have become accustomed to Google’s ultra-simple design,”
“Shifting to a new AI-infused search engine demands an adjustment that many of us are reluctant to take.” he said.
Businesses and SEOs have long adapted to Google’s search algorithms, which have been refined over years to provide highly accurate and relevant results.
The New Bing’s reliance on AI-driven search results, though groundbreaking, has yet to earn the level of trust required to persuade users to shift away from Google’s time-tested approach.
Bing’s introduction of AI-powered search was hailed as an innovative leap forward, but AI’s inherent tendency to make errors has left many users wary.
The fear of encountering inaccurate or misleading information—often referred to as “hallucinations” in AI parlance—has led to hesitancy, particularly among academics and business leaders who prioritize reliability over novelty.
On the other hand, ChatGPT has made a far more substantial impact. Within just five days of its November 2022 launch, the site acquired 1 million users, and today, it boasts over 100 million active users, according to Exploding Topics.
ChatGPT generated 1.6 billion visits in June 2023 alone, with nearly 90% of those visits being direct.
OpenAI’s revenue projections are equally impressive—forecasting $200 million for 2023 and an anticipated $1 billion in 2024, a remarkable leap from figures under $10 million in 2022.
Despite this success, users have shown a marked preference for visiting ChatGPT directly, rather than accessing it through Bing—although those numbers appear to be stabilizing.
Between May and June, desktop and mobile traffic declined by about 10%, and user engagement also saw a slight dip.
Meanwhile, Alphabet’s Google Bard has faced more challenges in gaining traction. A high-profile mistake during Bard’s demo launch cost Alphabet $100 billion in market value, and Google’s UK head has openly stated that users should not rely on Bard for accurate information.
However, Google’s vast ad revenue, which exceeded $220 billion in 2022, ensures that its traditional search business remains robust and securely positioned in the market.
Globally, Google maintains an overwhelming presence, with search still the dominant choice in most countries.
Exceptions exist, notably in China, where the government’s control over internet content has propelled local search engines like Baidu, and in Russia, where Yandex holds sway. Yandex, though censored, also offers better functionality in Cyrillic script.
In democratic nations, the only notable competitors to Google’s search dominance are Yahoo! Japan and Naver in South Korea, where Google holds a still-impressive 72% and 61% of the market share, respectively.
Despite ongoing debates and regulatory scrutiny over Google’s near-monopoly status in search and online advertising, including hefty fines and antitrust cases in the EU and US, the complexity of Google’s infrastructure and its foundational role on the internet make a full breakup unlikely.
It’s possible that traditional search engines will continue to be the preferred option for users who prioritize accuracy, consistency, and reliability in their online searches.
As AI technology continues to evolve, achieving a balance between cutting-edge innovation and trustworthy results will be critical for convincing skeptics and winning over a broader audience.
There’s no denying that Microsoft’s New Bing has made waves this year, but Google Search remains a dominant force.
However, ChatGPT, particularly as voice integration becomes more widespread, might soon begin to chip away at more of the advertising market, further shifting the landscape in the years to come.
