In the ever-evolving landscape of search engines, Microsoft’s Bing has managed to secure a marginal increase in its market share over the past year, both in the United States and globally. Despite the introduction of the revamped Bing, powered by ChatGPT designed for Search, one year ago, Google continues to reign supreme as the dominant search engine.
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Microsoft’s ambitious endeavour to challenge Google’s search dominance faced initial excitement but has, so far, yielded only modest results. The search market landscape, one year after the launch of the new Bing, remains remarkably similar to the pre-revamp era.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, during the unveiling of the new Bing on February 7, 2023, proclaimed it as “a new day for search.” However, as we reflect on the past year, it seems more like a continuation of the same narrative rather than the anticipated revolution. Questions persist about whether generative AI, despite the hype from both Microsoft and Google, has truly lived up to its game-changer expectations.
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Examining the numerical data from Stat Counter over the last year, Microsoft Bing’s U.S. search market share experienced a marginal uptick, rising from 6.35% to 7.87%, a modest increase of 1.52 percentage points. Globally, Bing’s search market share saw a similarly modest rise from 2.81% to 3.43%, an increase of 0.62 percentage points. In contrast, Google’s U.S. search market share witnessed a decline from 88.96% to 87.46%, representing a 1.5 percentage point decrease. On the global stage, Google’s search market share decreased from 93.37% to 91.47%, reflecting a more substantial 1.9 percentage point drop.
Interestingly, the data indicates that Microsoft Bing and Google essentially exchanged a 1.5 percentage point difference in the U.S. market. However, on the global scale, Google lost almost 2 percentage points, while Microsoft Bing only managed to gain less than a percentage point of that decrease.
Microsoft has previously asserted that capturing just 1 percentage point of search market share could translate into an additional $2 billion in new search revenue. Despite this, it’s challenging to ascertain if this revenue materialized, as Microsoft only discloses percentages in its earnings reports. Nevertheless, on January 30, Microsoft reported an 8% increase in Search and News Advertising revenue, and during the earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood mentioned a “higher search volume.”
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Meanwhile, in response to the revamped Bing, Google introduced its Search Generative Experience (SGE), still in the experimental phase in Labs. Additionally, Google unveiled its Gemini model in December, integrated into Bard, used in SGE, and slated to be incorporated into Google Search in the near future.
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As we analyze the developments of the past year, it’s evident that Microsoft Bing has made incremental gains but has yet to emerge as a formidable competitor challenging Google’s dominance. The shift in market share, while notable, has not disrupted the status quo significantly. The efficacy of generative AI in transforming the search landscape remains uncertain, and the search engine arena continues to evolve with both Microsoft and Google unveiling innovative features in an ongoing quest for supremacy.
