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 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.  

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.

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 March 2024, Google was the leader among search engines in Norway, with 94.2 percent of the market share. Bing and Yahoo!, followed, accounting for market shares of roughly 3.74 percent and 1.22 percent respectively. The figures were similar for desktop search engines in the country. Google’s growth can be seen in the company’s revenue figures over the years, with a dramatic increase from 0.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2002, to over 181 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. What were Norwegians "googling"? Google offers limitless information online, but the most commonly entered search term by Norwegians in 2020 was “Oslo”. “VG”, abbreviated from “Verdens Gang”, or “The course of the World” was the leading online newspaper in Norway and ranked second. Google search engine worldwide Google has been the global leader among search engines for the past decade. Despite a slight decrease in its market share, the figures have been relatively stable throughout the observed period. As of June 2021, Google accounted for over 87 percent of the global search engine market.

Google held the majority of the market share of leading search engines in Sweden in March 2024, with 91.86 percent. Bing and Yahoo! followed with around 5.78 percent and 1.3 percent of the market share, respectively. There was a slight difference, regarding mobile search engines and desktop search engines. While Google was still the leader in both categories, its share was over 98 percent for mobile engines and roughly 87 percent for desktop engines . Google Google search has been widely used over the past years. According to the source, it was used most frequently among people between the ages of 16 and 25. Furthermore, 74 percent of them reported to have used it daily in 2018. Worldwide Regarding Google’s market share worldwide, it has slightly decreased over the years. It was reported to be highest in April 2012, when Google search reached 91.7 percent global market share. It amounted to roughly 87.8 percent as of June 2021. Despite that, Google search has been the worldwide leader over the evaluated period, followed by bing, Yahoo! And Baidu.

As of March 2024, Google was the most popular search engine in Italy on desktop devices, with an 88.27 percent share of the search engine market. Considering the same period, Bing only reached 8.22 percent of the market share, while Yahoo! reached 2.47 percent. Furthermore, Italy was among the countries with some of highest desktop market shares for Google in the analyzed month. Internet in Italy: a growing habit... The internet usage in Italy has progressively grown over the last years, with the share of individuals accessing the web in Italy facing a permanent growth, passing from 34.1 percent in 2006, to 77.1 percent in 2021. The daily access to the internet in the country has also increased, from 40.3 percent in 2015, to 63.4 percent in 2021, although 21.2 percent of Italians claimed to not use the internet at all. ...with regional differences Even though the Internet usage in Italy is constantly growing in every region, the share of Internet users remains unbalanced throughout its territory. Northern Italy has a slightly higher share of Internet users in than in the other regions, with approximately 79.1 percent of the population in 2021 accessing the web. Meanwhile the southern region had the lowest share of internet users, with 72 percent in the same year.

In November 2021, Google had the highest market share of all search engines in Australia, accounting for almost 94 percent of web traffic referred by search engines. Bing followed as the second most popular search engine with a four percent market share that month.

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 June 2024, Google had a search engine market share of approximately 94.62 percent in Brazil across all devices. Microsoft's Bing ranked second, with a share of 3.84 percent, while other engines like Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo followed with smaller shares.

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 2024, the most used search engine in South Korea was Naver, with a share of around 58 percent of monthly active users. Naver is a South Korean online platform and search engine which is operated by Naver Corporation. Despite the domestic website being popular among users, Google took first spot as the market leader in the South Korean search engine market. Online search behavior Naver was still the first place to go for South Koreans looking up information on the web.The most successful search engine visit category in South Korea was related to studying, averaging over two-thirds of visits. At the same time, search engine results of the IT category had the highest bounce rate. Online education, on the other hand, had a rather low bounce rate, indicating that users were more satisfied with the shown search results. Internet usage in South Korea The significant majority of South Koreans used the internet, maintaining an internet usage rate of well over 90 percent for years. Reasons for using the internet in South Korea are countless, as it has seeped into every facet of life. Nevertheless, the most commonly named reasons for going online were communication purposes and looking for information. Using the internet for multiple reasons, South Koreans spend on average more than 20 hours per week online.

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 92 percent and was the forerunner on mobile devices by around 97 percent. The Microsoft product Bing came in second with 3.77 percent market shares in France, with the most desktop usage of more than nine percent. Yahoo! remained above the 2.88 percent share on desktop usage.

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.

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.

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 97 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 1.42 percent.

Based on a survey conducted in 2019 among internet users in the United States, the majority of adults (36 percent) admitted they would switch search engines if it meant getting better quality results. Furthermore, 33.7 percent stated that knowing their data was not being collected by a platform would also encourage them to make the switch. Other factors listed included 'having fewer ads' and a well designed interface. Overall, there was a noticeable lean toward search result quality and data privacy when it came to search engine selection.

Google leads despite user preference for increased privacy

Despite a strong consumer call for data protection, Google topped the list when it came to search engines with 93 percent of Americans surveyed reporting to having used the popular search giant at some point during the past 4 weeks. In comparison, the second most popular platform Yahoo! had only been used by 31 percent of those surveyed. Meanwhile DuckDuckGo, the search engine most known for protecting user data and search history had only been used by 8 percent. Mobile search figures lean even more in Google's favor. Here, a similar share (93 percent) of the market as of January 2021 belonged to Google, while approximately 3 percent was held by DuckDuckGo.

Growth expected for search advertising

With search engines playing a significant role in internet use be it on desktop or mobile, companies and search platforms alike are seeing an increased opportunity in the field of search engine advertising. Nationwide spend in the industry reached an impressive 58.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, and was forecast to further rise to 66.2 billion within the following year.

In March 2021, the majority of search traffic to YouTube.com came from Google.com, with close to 707 million average monthly visits to the popular video platform originating from the search engine. Privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo came in second, averaging 23 million visits in the examined period. YouTube.com traffic through Microsoft Bing amounted to 7.5 million visits, making it the third search engine based on monthly referrer traffic volume.

Yahoo was the third most popular search engine in India, following Google and Bing. The multinational IT company's share in the South Asian country's desktop search market stood at 1.8 percent as of February 2024. After years of fluctuation, Yahoo's market share steadily increased, comparable with its share in February 2021.

In 2021, Britney Spears had a year-on-year search growth of 117 percent, making her the most trending celebrity on Google search worldwide in 2021 by average monthly searches. The second-most trending celebrity on Google was Cristiano Ronaldo, who had an average monthly search growth increase of 75 percent. Celebrities on social media

Internet users worldwide like following the everyday life of celebrities, especially via social media. The Instagram accounts with the highest number of followers belong to famous personalities in the mainstream media. The most followed celebrity on Instagram is football player Cristiano Ronaldo. The Manchester United forward had over 440 million followers on the social media platform. The American personality and reality show star Kylie Jenner followed with around 336 million followers. Unlike Instagram, a large number of TikTok’s most famous users acquired their followers by posting fun and engaging content on the popular short video platform. TikTok’s most popular content creators like Charli D'Amelio and Khaby Lame acquired their internet fame performing comedy sketches and lip-synching challenges. What else do people search on Google?

According to the latest data, “Google” was the most searched keyword worldwide on the search engine. Overall, social media platforms, news, as well as weather were among the leading search queries on Google. When it comes to politicians, Joe Biden seemed to catch the interest of many users worldwide, as the 46th president of the United States became the most searched statesperson on Google in 2021, averaging around seven million monthly searches on average. “Squid game”, the popular Netflix show that was released in September 2021, was the most searched TV series worldwide by far, with a monthly search volume of over 100 million online searches.