As of March 2025, Google represented 79.1 percent of the global online search engine market on desktop devices. Despite being much ahead of its competitors, this represents the lowest share ever recorded by the search engine in these devices for over two decades. Meanwhile, its long-time competitor Bing accounted for 12.21 percent, as tools like Yahoo and Yandex held shares of over 2.9 percent each. Google and the global search market Ever since the introduction of Google Search in 1997, the company has dominated the search engine market, while the shares of all other tools has been rather lopsided. The majority of Google revenues are generated through advertising. Its parent corporation, Alphabet, was one of the biggest internet companies worldwide as of 2024, with a market capitalization of 2.02 trillion U.S. dollars. The company has also expanded its services to mail, productivity tools, enterprise products, mobile devices, and other ventures. As a result, Google earned one of the highest tech company revenues in 2024 with roughly 348.16 billion U.S. dollars. Search engine usage in different countries Google is the most frequently used search engine worldwide. But in some countries, its alternatives are leading or competing with it to some extent. As of the last quarter of 2023, more than 63 percent of internet users in Russia used Yandex, whereas Google users represented little over 33 percent. Meanwhile, Baidu was the most used search engine in China, despite a strong decrease in the percentage of internet users in the country accessing it. In other countries, like Japan and Mexico, people tend to use Yahoo along with Google. By the end of 2024, nearly half of the respondents in Japan said that they had used Yahoo in the past four weeks. In the same year, over 21 percent of users in Mexico said they used Yahoo.

As of March 2025, Google continued to dominate the global search engine industry by far, with an 89.62 percent market share. However, this stronghold may be showing signs of erosion, with its share across all devices dipping to its lowest point in over two decades. Bing, Google's closest competitor, currently holds a market share of 4.01 percent across, while Russia-based Yandex hikes to the third place with a share of around 2.51 percent. Competitive landscape and regional variations While Google's overall dominance persists, other search engines carve out niches in various markets and platforms. Bing holds a 12.21 percent market share across desktop devices worldwide, as Yandex and Baidu have found success inside and outside of their home markets. Yandex is used by over 63 percent of Russian internet users, but Baidu has seen its market share significantly in China As regional variations highlight the importance of local players in challenging Google's global supremacy, the company is likely to face more challenges with the AI-powered online search trend and increasing regulatory scrutiny. Search behavior and antitrust concerns Despite facing more competition, Google remains deeply ingrained in users' online habits. In 2024, "Google" itself was the most popular search query on its own platform, followed by "YouTube" - another Google-owned property. This self-reinforcing ecosystem has drawn scrutiny from regulators, with the European Commission imposing millionaire antitrust fines on the company. As its influence extends beyond search into various online services, the company's market position continues to be a subject of debate among industry watchdogs and authorities worldwide.

In January 2025, Google accounted for 93.89 percent of the global mobile search engine market worldwide. Ever since the release of Google Search in 1997, the company's search engine has dominated the search engine market, maintaining a margin of more than 93 percentage points since January 2015. Currently owned by the parent corporation Alphabet Inc., Google has one of the highest tech company revenues, with roughly 305.63 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

Much like the alternatives to mainstream social media platforms, China has pioneered the production of search engines that provide an alternative to Google and Bing. Some of the most prominent Chinese search engines are Baidu and Haosou (also 360 Search), with a combined market share of 64.8 percent. Baidu – China’s internet giant Since its founding in 2000, Baidu’s revenue surged swiftly and totaled about 135 billion yuan in 2023. A majority of the revenue was generated through online marketing services. However, the operating profit bounced back after having contracted in 2019 and 2021. Baidu used to control about 70 to 80 percent of China’s online search market, a new contender Haosou emerged and is expected to close the gap shortly. Other search engines in China In a country with around 878 million online search users, there are multiple local options besides Baidu. In a 2023 consumer survey in China, Shenma and Quark Search were rated the best in user experience whereas Haosou or 360 Search led the pack in search response speed and the diversity in search results.

In January 2025, Google accounted for 93.82 percent of the global mobile search engine market worldwide. Yandex had 2.5 percent of the global mobile search, while, competitors like Baidu and Yahoo! accounted for less than one percent each on a global scale.

In April 2025, Google accounted for 86.71 percent of the search market in the United States across all devices. Bing followed as the second leading search provider in the United States during the last examined month, with a share of around 7.5 percent, among the engine's highest quotas registered in the country to date.

This statistic shows the market share of search engines in the United States in December 2008 to 2020. In December 2020, Verizon Media's search market share was 11.4 percent, down 0.1 percent from the previous year. The subsidiary was formed in 2017 by Verizon Communications as a merge between newly acquired Yahoo! and AOL.

In February 2025, Microsoft Sites handled 28.6 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 11 percent. Market leader Google generated 60.4 percent of all core search queries in the United States.

In 2024, Google dominated the search engine market in Vietnam with a share of approximately 97 percent. In that year, the largest Vietnamese browser and search engine company CocCoc ranked second with a share of around 2.5 percent.

Google is not only popular in its home country but is also the dominant internet search provider in many major online markets, frequently generating between 70 and 80 percent of desktop search traffic. The search engine giant has a market share of over 90 percent in India and accounted for the majority of the global search engine market, ahead of other competitors such as Yahoo, Bing, Yandex, and Baidu. Google’s online dominance All roads lead to Rome, or if you are browsing the internet, all roads lead to Google. It is hard to imagine an online experience without the online behemoth, as the company offers a wide range of online products and services that all seamlessly integrate with each other. Google search and advertising are the core products of the company, accounting for the vast majority of the company revenues. When adding this up with the Chrome browser, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Google’s ownership of the Android mobile operating system, and various other consumer and enterprise services, Google is basically a one-stop shop for online needs. Google anti-trust rulings However, Google’s dominance of the search market is not always welcome and is keenly watched by authorities and industry watchdogs – since 2017, the EU commission has fined Google over 8 billion euros in antitrust fines for abusing its monopoly in online advertising. In March 2019, European Commission found that Google violated antitrust regulations by imposing contractual restrictions on third-party websites in order to make them less competitive and fined the company 1.5 billion euros.

As of January 2025, Google accounted for a market share of almost 90 percent in the Asian search market. Yandex followed, with a market share of about 2.7 percent.

In 2024, Google held around 51.3 percent of South Korea's search engine market share. Following Google was the domestic web portal Naver with a market share of roughtly 42.3 percent. Other search engines were lagging far behind.

In April 2025, Google accounted for over 94 percent of the mobile search market in the United States. With approximately 66 percent reach among mobile audiences, Google Search is also one of the most popular mobile apps in the United States. DuckDuckGo and Yahoo! followed as the leading mobile search providers in the United States during the last examined month, with shares of around 2.1 percent each.

In 2024, Google led the search engine market in Thailand with almost 98 percent share of the market. Despite having little share in the market, some of the other search engines were still active, namely Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo.

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 2025, the search engine Bing had a market share of 4.04 percent. Bing, Microsoft's search engine, holds a far smaller share of the search engine market compared to Google. In some markets, like Russia and China, Bing is less popular as there are local search engines; Yandex and Baidu, for example.

As of January 2024, Google led the search engine market in Indonesia with a 95.16 percent share of the market. In the same year, Bing and Yahoo! followed with minor market shares.

As of March 2024, Google led the search engine market in Laos with a 96.28 percent share. Comparatively, Bing accounted for about two percent of the search engine market in the country as of March 2024.

In January 2025, Google remained by far the most popular search engine in the UK, holding a market share of 93.25 percent across all devices. That month, Bing had a market share of approximately 4.22 percent in second place, followed by Yahoo! with approximately 1.37 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 one 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, 57.7 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 half of Generation Z claiming to be either unconcerned about fake news, or believed that it did not exist altogether.  

Google was by far the most used search engine in India, holding a market share of 98.51 percent in July 2023. Despite having already reached a market share of more than three percent in 2018, Bing ranked second in the same month, with a market share of approximately 0.98 percent, followed by Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo, with shares of 0.29 percent and 0.2 percent each.