Google Search Market Share at Ten-Year Low

Google's global search market share has dropped below 90 percent according to one estimate. It's the first time it's consistently been below that threshold in a decade.

Some analysts have suggested the drop may be down to users preferring AI large language model chatbots such as ChatGPT to search for information. However, that's not factored directly into these figures.

They come from Statcounter, a respected online activity tracking company. While it only gathers data from a sample of users, the sample is generally accepted as representative of the Internet as a whole and its archive of data going back a quarter of a century allows for accurate tracking of long-term trends.

Three Month Pattern

The precise figures over the past three months have Google used for 89.34% of searches in October; 89.99% in November; and 89.73% in December. While it once dropped below 90% in April that appeared to be a one-off blip. This is the first time it has been this low for a consistent period since 2015. (Source: searchengineland.com)

One obvious theory is that people are more likely to use tools such as ChatGPT to get quick answers to questions rather than wade through suggestions for websites that could provide answers. However, these figures only count the proportions of users on different traditional search engines.

That means either that former Google users are switching to other services or that Google users are more likely to use non-search engine approaches, leaving rivals increasing market share despite not actually increasing the number of users.

Asia in Decline

Another insight may come from the fact that while Google's market share has held relatively steady in most regions, it's had a big drop in Asia. The sheer size of the online population there means this drop had a noticeable effect on the worldwide figure. (Source: msn.com)

In theory it's bad news for Google as it makes the site a little less attractive to advertisers, particularly those most interested in the sheer size of a potential audience. It also means slightly fewer data points for providing accurate results and targeting ads.

One possible upside is that it reduces the strength of argument by regulators and governments that Google has a monopoly and may have acted unlawfully in the way it maintains and exploits that strength.

What's Your Opinion?

Why do you think Google's market share has dropped? Is that a good thing for Internet users overall? Are search engines going to become less important?