StatCounter recently updated its data detailing the search engine market for most of 2021, showing each individual company’s share month over month.
Well, with the search engine market becoming so saturated and competition pouring left and right, one would expect there to be a few key players, with all other applications seeking a share of the overall benefits? I mean, the smartphone industry, the social media industry and many more are similar, right? If you had such an opinion, I regret to inform you that such an assumption is completely incorrect. The search engine market is effectively (and whatever other adjectives) a monopoly, with Google Search reigning supreme and literally every other engine having less than 10% of what’s out there. Ouch. While I’m not particularly surprised by these results, Google Search being an incredibly popular engine after all, such a noticeable disparity between Google and literally everything else is probably something not everyone expected. However, much of it comes down to luck, effective marketing, and investing money in businesses left and right. Let’s look at some numbers and then discuss Google’s current stranglehold on the market.
For starters, it’s very interesting to note that Google Search actually saw a net loss in market share year over year. December 2020 saw the platform at an incredible 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 my god, it really looks like Google is on its last wheels. All kidding aside, there’s been virtually no fluctuation in the numbers for one of Google’s most valuable products (arguably the company’s flagship, even), while others haven’t very well behaved. If we look at the December 2021 data (presented below), the picture is even brighter for Google. There are only four other search engines that are even mentioned in the report, with all the others being unceremoniously pushed into the “other” category. Of these four, Bing did the best, ending 2021 with a market share of 3.14%. Yahoo, Baidu and Yandex can hardly be deciphered from each other as they all have a share of around 1% respectively. Other search engines such as DuckDuckGo, despite their growing popularity, are untraceable and therefore have a long ladder to climb before reaching the top.
In fact, the only region where Google Search doesn’t absolutely annihilate its competition is North America, along with literally every other place where the popular search engine has over 90% of the market. So what makes North America so different and unique? I think a lot of this can be attributed to a generally increased awareness of different search engine options and how Google Search can lead to a user’s personal information being shared with advertisers targeted third parties. Even so, however, Google sits at 88.79% in November 2021. In fact, while other search engines have understandably performed a bit better, the only significant increase can be seen in Bing’s share of the search engine market, jumping from a global level of 3.14% to a relatively high level of 5.93%.
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