In January 2025, Google remained by far the most popular search engine in the UK, holding a market share of ***** percent across all devices. That month, Bing had a market share of approximately **** percent in second place, followed by Yahoo! with approximately **** percent. The EU vs Google Despite Google’s dominance of the search engine market, maintaining its position at the top has not been a smooth ride. Google’s market share saw a decline in the summer of 2018, plummeting to an all-time-low in July. The search engine experienced a similar dip in June and July 2017. These two low points coincided with the European Commission’s antitrust charges against the company, both of which were unprecedented in the now decade-long duel between both parties. As skepticism towards search engine platforms grows in line with public concern regarding censorship and data privacy, alternative services like Duckduckgo offer users both information protection and unfiltered results. Despite this, it still held less than *** percent of the industry’s market share as of June 2021. Perception of fake news in the UK According to a questionnaire conducted in the United Kingdom in 2018, **** percent of respondents had come across inaccurate news on social media at least once before. Rising concerns over fake news, or information which has been manipulated to influence the public has been a hot topic in recent years. The younger generation however, remains skeptical with nearly **** of Generation Z claiming to be either unconcerned about fake news, or believed that it did not exist altogether.

In April 2024, Google was the most popular search engine in the UK, holding a market share of ***** percent across all devices. Bing had a relatively large market share of approximately **** percent in second place, followed by Yahoo! with approximately **** percent.

In January 2024, Bing held a **** percent share of the search market in the United Kingdom (UK) across all devices. Meanwhile, Google held a much larger share of the UK's online search market.

Bing on the world stage  Google holds a similar share of the global desktop search market as it does in the UK. Outside of the UK, Bing attracts an increasing ***** percent share of the market. Worldwide, Bing regularly attracts more than *** billion unique monthly visitors.

Google and mobile: an unfair advantage?  Bing held just a *** percent of the mobile search market in the UK in June 2021. Despite being significantly lower than their overall share, this was still good enough to give Bing second place in the market, due to Google’s absolute dominance of mobile search in the UK. According to European regulators, however, the means with which Google achieved their dominance is neither fair nor legal.

In 2019, Google was fined *** billion euros for effectively forcing manufacturers of android-based equipment to bundle Chrome and Google search with their devices, in order to access other Google services. As a result of that ruling, users setting up android devices in Europe from the start of 2020 will be able to choose from a list of available default search providers. The available options of the list will vary country to country, based on a bidding process in which rival search engines indicate to Google exactly how much they would be willing to pay per user selecting their company as the default search provider.

In January 2025 Google represented a market of share of ***** percent across all devices, maintaining its post as the most popular search engine in the United Kingdom since January 2018. Google competitors in the UK After Google, the second most popular search engine site in the UK is Bing. Bing had a market share of **** percent as of January 2024. Yahoo! had a *** percent share of the search engine market in the UK during the same month. Search engines in the UK Further information on the use of search engines in the United Kingdom can be found in the Statista dossier on search engines in the United Kingdom, and more information on Google in the UK can be found in the Google in the United Kingdom Statista dossier.  

Back in the early 2000s, "Googling" something became a household verb, a cultural benchmark of internet search dominance. For years, Google has enjoyed near-total control over the search engine landscape. But fast forward to 2025, and the narrative is evolving. Microsoft’s Bing, once dismissed as a secondary player, has carved...

In January 2025, Google had the highest market share by far with **** percent of the desktop search engine market in the UK. Bing and Yahoo! followed, representing a share of **** percent and *** percent each.

In April 2023, Bing held a share of **** percent of the mobile search market share in the United Kingdom. Across all devices, the engine enjoyed a more fair popularity of around **** percent during the same month.

In February 2025, Microsoft Sites handled **** percent of all search queries in the United States. During the same period, Verizon Media (formerly known as Yahoo and Oath) had a search market share of little less than ** percent. Market leader Google generated **** percent of all core search queries in the United States.

In April 2023, Google search engine held share of ***** percent in the United Kingdom's mobile search market. All other leading engines like Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo, and Bing held shares of less than *** percent each in the same month.

A survey conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) in September 2019 revealed that 40.7 percent of respondents would switch to a different search engine if it had a better quality of results. This was followed by nearly 29 percent of respondents who said they would do the same if the search engine did not collect any personal data about them or their searches. For 3.02 percent of the respondents, being able to customize the layout was a motivating factor for switching search engines.

Market shares of leading search engines in the UK

As of September 2020, Google was by far the most popular search engine in the UK and held a market share of approximately 86.6 percent. Bing had a market share of approximately 9.7 percent in second place, followed by Yahoo! with nearly 2.2 percent. The mobile search engine market accounted for 47.6 percent of search in the UK. This was followed by desktop computer searches, with a market share of 45.5 percent.

Internet usage in the UK

Internet penetration rate in the UK has increased nearly three-fold over the last nineteen years, reaching 87 percent in 2019, up from 30 percent in 2000. In 2019, 91 percent of individuals in the UK said they accessed the internet daily. Internet usage via any device or location was highest among individuals aged between 16 and 44 years old in 2019, with at least 98 percent of individuals going online.

The website that people could least do without in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2019 was Google. The BBC website was second most popular. Amazon saw an increase in popularity compared to 2017, whereas Facebook experienced a considerable drop in popularity.

Search engines in the UK

The most popular website, Google, has by far the highest share of the desktop search engine market in the UK, with Bing being its closest competitor. Google is also the leading mobile search engine, with a market share of ** percent as of October 2020. These days, the majority of online search in the UK is mobile.

Internet demographics and use in Great Britain

The number of Brits using the internet daily increased continuously between 2006 and 2020, reaching over ** million individuals in 2020. As of November 2020, the majority said they used the internet for sending and receiving emails. Finding information about goods or services was the second most common activity carried out online. Less than a fifth of internet users said that they went online to make a medical appointment or to use online health services.

In the fiscal year that ended December 31, 2023, Google UK Limited reported tax expenses of 128.56 million British pounds. In its previous financial year, the British subsidiary reported around 59.13 million British pounds in tax charges, little less than half of the latest announced values. Google Ads is Alphabet's main source of revenue Alphabet, Google's parent company, has seen an increase in global revenue each year since 2017. By 2024, this had reached a total of 348.16 billion U.S. dollars, with the majority of profit being made through Google advertising. Through its in-house advertising platform Google Ads, Google enables advertisers to bid for advertising spots on its search engine and apps. A closer look at the brand's year-on-year advertising revenue shows that it has been in constant growth since 2001, and is likely to remain on this upward trajectory. Global alternatives to Google Search The recent tech boom has also raised concerns regarding privacy and data collection, with an increasing number of internet users opting for alternative search engines, messaging apps and email services. DuckDuckGo and Ecosia are two search engine alternatives that have come to light in recent years for their focus on user privacy. The former in particular has seen an increased uptake in the United States since mid 2020. While Google still dominates globally, Microsoft's Bing and Yahoo! Search have consistently held their share of the market over the last ten years and remain longest-standing alternatives to Google Search.