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.
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.
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, the search engine Bing had a market share of **** 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.
In April 2025, Google accounted for ***** 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 *** percent, among the engine's highest quotas registered in the country to date.
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 ***** and ************************, with a combined market share of ** percent. Baidu – China’s internet giant Since its founding in 2000, Baidu’s revenue surged swiftly and totaled about ****** billion yuan in 2024. 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 ** to ** 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 *** 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 April 2025, Google accounted for over ** percent of the mobile search market in the United States. With approximately ** 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 *** percent each.
In November 2021, Google had the highest market share of all search engines in Australia, accounting for almost ** percent of web traffic referred by search engines. Bing followed as the second most popular search engine with a **** percent market share that month.
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 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 January 2025, Google represented ***** percent of the UK's mobile search engine market share. Yahoo! ranked second, with **** percent, while all other search hosts also representing less than *** percent each.
The market share of the most used search engines in France in May 2021, ranked by type of device is represented in this statistic. Google dominated the market share on all devices by almost ** percent and was the forerunner on mobile devices by around ** percent. The Microsoft product Bing came in second with **** percent market shares in France, with the most desktop usage of more than **** percent. Yahoo! remained above the **** percent share on desktop usage.
In May 2025, Google had a search engine market share of approximately ***** percent in Brazil across all devices. Microsoft's Bing ranked second, with a share of **** percent, while other engines like Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo followed with smaller shares.
As of May 2025, Google was the leading search engine in Taiwan, dominating the market with an overwhelming share of about 80.18 percent across all devices. Its popularity among mobile phone users was even higher, taking 87.63 percent of the search engine market in the same period.
Alternative search engine DuckDuckGo's worldwide market share has steadily increased from July 2019 to January 2025 – the largest surge being in the United States, which surpassed the search engine’s growth in all other regions. Here, an increased uptake began roughly around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020, continuing in the months leading up to the US elections and beyond, but later running a bit lower than three percent in since January 2023. Ecosia - the more popular alternative in Europe While Google is still the market leader by a long shot when it comes to search engines in the United States - where DuckDuckGo is also based, consumer trust in big tech has been waning and more are seeking out privacy-based alternatives. In Europe, Ecosia is the more popular option and has seen steady growth particularly in Germany and France. Despite not having privacy as its main selling point, the German-based company invests its profits into tree-planting and reforestation projects. Americans’ waning trust in the government The onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic caught most governments off-guard, invoking a host of different responses and approaches across the globe. In the United States, overall trust in the government to deal appropriately with the pandemic fell by approximately 20 percent in the period between February 2020 and January 2021. In fact, among the various institutions of authority, Americans had the least trust in the government – even less than that towards the European Union. Conversely, the United Nations commanded the most public trust. As the COVID vaccination rollout continues across the country, young Americans aged 18 to 24 are also the most skeptical when it comes to the idea of vaccination passports for travel, with approximately 41 percent in support of the measure.
In May 2025, the online search engine Bing accounted for 4.11 percent of the European search market across all devices, while market leader Google held a search traffic share of around 89.45 percent. Meanwhile, Yandex's market share was 3.72 percent, while Yahoo! represented around 1.08 percent.
Google was by far the most used search engine in Germany, holding a market share of ***** percent in May 2025. Bing ranked second, with a market share of approximately **** percent in the same month, followed by Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and Yahoo!, with shares of **** percent, **** percent and **** 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.
The search engine Ecosia's worldwide market share has remained fairly stable between August 2019 and January 2025. In Germany, where the company is based, its market share fluctuated between 0.12 percent and 0.11 percent. This is still a small share of the market, which is dominated by Google. The search tool is powered by Microsoft Bing's search technology, which invests roughly 80 percent of its profits in tree planting and reforestation projects around the world.
This statistic shows the market share of search engines on tablets in the Netherlands as of 2021. In this year, Google was the most popular search engine on tablets in the Netherlands, with the highest market share of ** percent. Other domains, such as DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and bing, also attracted traffic. DuckDuckGo, a search engine which aims to protect searchers' privacy, reached a market share of **** percent.
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.