Search Engine Market Share: Who’s Leading the Race (2024)

When people say “optimize for search engines,” Google is always the first search engine that comes to mind.

Newsflash: There are other search enginesout there, too.

These top search enginesreceive tons of traffic… but they don’t always appear as popular as Google.

Let’s do a deep dive into the overall search engine market share and how it looks based on regions, counties, and the world.

Meet the Search Engines

Google

Googlewas started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998.

Its name was derived from the word “googol,” a mathematical term for what we get when we multiply 10 by itself 100 times (it’s 1 with 100 zeros after it).

Before Google and its parent company, Alphabet, became the third trillion-dollar valued companyever created, Page and Brin struggled to sell it.

They offered to sell Googleto Excite (another internet company) in 1999 for $750,000, but Excite rejected their offer. Only five years later, Google raised $1.67 billionduring its initial public offering (IPO) in 2004.

Fast forward to now, and besides optimizing its algorithmsto return the best results to user queries, Google is also engaged in businesses like:

• Software products (like Google Workspaceand the famous Gmail)
• Search advertising (Google AdWords)
• Infrastructure (Google Cloud)
• Self-driving cars (Waymo)

Number of searches: As of 2022,Google processes more than 100,000 search queriesper second. That’smore than 8.5 billion daily searches.

Annual revenue: In 2021, Google’s annual revenuehit $257 billion. It’s the first time it broke the $200 billion mark.

MicrosoftBing

Microsoftintroduced Bingin 2009 to replace its previous offerings, Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search. And in 2020, it rebranded Bingto Microsoft Bing.

Microsoftdeveloped MSN Search as an answer to Google. But since Windows Live Search’s launch in 2006, Microsoft’s search engines have been trailing behind Google.

In 2010, Bingstarted powering Yahoo’s searchresults. It also struck a deal with Facebookin 2010 to give users personalized search results; itadded Facebook social data to its search results so users could see what their friends “Liked.”

Reviews from SerpWatchand Search Engine Journalsay Binghas better image search capabilitiesthan Google. Bingenables users to filter images by size, color, or type.

Number of searches: Although Bingdoesn’t have as many users as Google, it receives over 1 billionmonthly visits as of June 2022.

Annual revenue: MicrosoftBinggenerated $8.53 billionin search advertising revenuein 2021— up 10.2% from $7.74 billion in 2020.

Yahoo

Before Google reigned supreme, Yahoowas the king of the internet.

Jerry Yang and David Filo founded Yahooin 1994. They originally named the website “David and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” before changing it to Yahoo, which stands for “Yet Another Hierarchical Organized Oracle.”

At its peak in the early 2000s, Yahoowas valued at $125 billion.

Yahoowas such a force that Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin offered to sell Google to Yahoofor $1 million in 1998, but Yahooturned them down.

In 2000, Yahooeventually got Google to power their web search. In 2002, Yahoothen offered to buy Google for $3 billion. This time, Google rejected them, saying they were worth at least $5 billion. Yahooeventually dropped Google in 2004for their own search technology.

By 2008, Google was already dominating the search market. So, to overthrow the search giant, Microsoftoffered to acquire Yahoofor $44.6 billion(or $31 per share), which was a 62% premium over Yahoo’s closing price. Microsoftlater rescinded its offerafter Yahoosaid it was “too low.”

In 2016, Yahoowas sold to Verizon for $5 billion. Verizon had already acquired AOLin 2015 for $4.4 billion, so it combined Yahooand AOLunder its “Oath” brand.

In 2021, Apollo Global Management acquired Verizon Media(formerly known as Oath), whose portfolio included AOLand Yahoo, for $5 billion — half of what Verizon paid for bothAOLand Yahoo.

Number of searches: As of 2022, Yahoohas over 700 million monthly active users and receives 3.4 billion monthly visits.

Annual revenue: In 2021, Yahooearned 873.8 million euros(about $920 million USD).

Baidu

Baiduwas founded and incorporated by Robert Li and Eric Xu in 2000. It’s headquartered in Beijing’s Haidan district and is China’s largest search engine.

Li and Xu launched Baiduas an independent website with $1.2 millionin funding from prominent venture capital firms Integrity Partners and Peninsula Capital.

Baidu’s name was taken from a Chinese poem: “The Green Jade Table in the Lantern Festival.” Written by Xin Qiji (1140–1207), the poem talks about the search for one’s dreams despite distractions… which is essentially what a search engine does.

Number of searches: As of June 2022, Baidureceives 5.4 billion monthly visits.

Annual revenue: Baidureported annual revenue of $19.5 billionin 2021.

Yandex

Yandex.ruis a Russian search engine started in 1993 by Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich. Its name stands for “Yet Another iNDEXer.”

Yandexwas officially launched in 1997 and introduced contextual advertisem*nt in 1998. It was registered as a standalone company in 2000.

Between 2000 and 2011, Yandexfocused on building its presence in locations such as Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkiye. In 2011, Yandexwent publicon the New York Stock Exchange with an initial public offering (IPO) of $1.3 billion.

The advantage of Yandexover other search engines is its ability to understand Russian inflection for search queries— a crucial feature since Russian words can take almost 20 different endings to indicate their relationship to one another.

Number of searches: As of June 2022, Yandexreceives 3.8 billion monthly visits.

Annual revenue: Yandexmade 356 billion Russian rubles(equivalent to $6.74 billion USD)in 2021.

DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGois an internet search engine founded by Gabriel Weinberg in 2008.

What sets DuckDuckGoapart from others is its commitment to protecting its users’ privacy. DuckDuckGodoesn’t collect or store your personal information or target you with ads. Its default setting is private — unlike other search engines, which typically only keep your information private when you use incognito mode.

Number of searches: As of June 2022, DuckDuckGoaverages at least 92 million visits per day.

Annual revenue: DuckDuckGohas been profitable since 2014 and makes over $100 million in annual revenue.

Google’s market share fluctuates between 86% and 96%, depending on the location. It has dominated the search engine market sharesince it was introduced in 1997. Its global search engine market share, as of June 2022, stands at 91.88%.

Where Do the Other Search Engines Stand?

According to StatCounter, as of June 2022, Google’s global search engine market sharewas at 91.88%, with Bingfollowing at 3.19%, Yandexat 1.52%, Yahooat 1.33%, Baiduat 0.76%, and DuckDuckGoat 0.64%. Other search engines make up the remaining 0.68%.

SimilarWeb data showsthat Google tops the global search engine market shareat 90.63%, with Yahoofollowing at 3.25%, Bingat 2.88%, Yandexat 0.45%, Naverat 0.44%, and other search engines at 2.34%.

In October2016, mobile traffic finally overtook desktop traffic.

Since then, search engines have tweaked their algorithmsto favor mobile content and reward mobile responsiveness.

We can compare search engine market shareacross devices to see whether the device plays a factor in usage. For example, Google tops the search engine market sharefor desktop and mobile devices, but it exerts its dominance over mobile search, with a 93–95% market share.

This suggests that either most mobile phones use Google as the default search engineor Google’s mobile searchoffers a smoother experience than others.

Desktop

• Google — 84.73%
• Bing— 8.66%
• Yahoo— 2.59%
• Yandex— 1.49%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.90%
• Baidu— 0.64%
• Others — 0.99%

• Google — 85.56%
• Bing— 7.61%
• Yahoo— 2.54%
• Yandex— 0.75%
• Naver— 0.72%
• Others — 2.81%

Mobile Devices

• Google — 95.31%
• Yandex— 1.54%
• Baidu— 0.83%
• Yahoo— 0.73%
• Bing— 0.53%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.5%
• Others — 0.56%

• Google — 93.38%
• Yahoo— 3.63%
• Bing— 0.35%
• Naver— 0.3%
• Yandex— 0.27%
• Others — 2.08%

Let’slook at the search engine market sharefor countries with large internet userbases.

Google dominates most countries besides China and Russia. Baidudominates China with a 75.54% market share (vs. Google’s 3.56%), while Google and Yandexshare Russia’s search engine market.

United States (U.S.)

• Google — 86.99%
• Bing— 7.02%
• Yahoo— 3.11%
• DuckDuckGo— 2.42%
• Yandex— 0.12%
• Ecosia— 0.10%
• Others — 0.24%

United Kingdom(U.K.)

• Google — 91.74%
• Bing— 5.14%
• Yahoo— 1.64%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.87%
• Ecosia— 0.32%
• Yandex— 0.15%
• Others — 0.14%

Canada

• Google — 91.18%
• Bing— 5.51%
• Yahoo— 1.58%
• DuckDuckGo— 1.31%
• Yandex— 0.12%
• Ecosia— 0.10%
• Others — 0.20%

Australia

• Google – 93.37%
• Bing— 4.63%
• Yahoo— 0.84%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.80%
• Ecosia— 0.15%
• Yandex— 0.08%
• Others — 0.13%

China

• Baidu— 75.54%
• Bing— 11.47%
• Sogou— 4.83%
• Google — 3.56%
• Haosou — 2.20%
• Shenma — 1.74%
• Others — 0.66%

Russian Federation

• Yandex— 49.02%
• Google — 48.08%
• Mail.ru — 1.24%
• Bing— 0.84%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.40%
• Yahoo— 0.31%
• Others — 0.11%

Google’s dominanceis also evident when we look at the search engine market shareof different regions — especially in South America, where 96.35%of all internet userspatronize Google.

North America

• Google —88.38%
• Bing—6.48%
• Yahoo—2.66%
• DuckDuckGo—2.01%
• Yandex—0.11%
• Ecosia—0.10%
• Others —0.26%

South America

• Google — 96.35%
• Bing— 2.35%
• Yahoo— 0.95%
• DuckDuckGo— 0.12%
• Petal Search — 0.08%
• Ecosia— 0.08%
• Others — 0.07%

Europe

• Google —91.91%
• Bing—3.87%
• Yandex—1.75%
• Yahoo—0.98%
• DuckDuckGo—0.58%
• Ecosia—0.33%
• Others —0.58%

Asia

• Google —92.40%
• Yandex—2.40%
• Baidu—1.63%
• Bing—1.54%
• Yahoo—1.08%
• Naver—0.37%
• Others —0.58%

Africa

• Google —95.90%
• Bing—2.86%
• Petal Search —0.44%
• Yahoo—0.35%
• Ananzi —0.24%
• DuckDuckGo—0.09%
• Others —0.12%

Oceania

• Google —93.36%
• Bing—4.63%
• Yahoo—0.86%
• DuckDuckGo—0.80%
• Ecosia—0.15%
• Yandex—0.08%
• Others —0.12%

Google is the undisputed market leaderin online search, taking the majority of the search engine market share. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore the other popular search engines, especially if you want your website to rankin China or Russia.

The recipe for success is straightforward: Search engineswant to bring users the most relevant search results. So, create quality contentand follow best practices for building a user-friendly websiteto rankyour website on all search engines.

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