Google Search Share Notably Dropped in July

A recent report from Bank of America indicates that Google’s global search market share saw a minor decrease in July. According to data from Statcounter, Google’s market share fell by 4 basis points (bps) month-over-month (m/m) and 105 bps year-over-year (y/y), landing at 91.0%.

Conversely, Bing’s market share grew by 16 bps m/m and 89 bps y/y, reaching 3.9%. Other search engines, such as Yandex, Baidu, Naver, and DuckDuckGo, experienced a decrease of 10 bps m/m but an increase of 9 bps y/y, also maintaining a 3.9% share.

The report further revealed that on desktop platforms, Google’s share declined by 8 bps m/m and 316 bps y/y to 80.3%. In contrast, Bing’s share on desktop saw a notable rise of 28 bps m/m and 264 bps y/y.

In the United States, Google’s overall share dropped by 5 bps m/m and 148 bps y/y, with a decline in mobile share of 5 bps m/m and 40 bps y/y, alongside a significant decrease of 26 bps m/m and 334 bps y/y in desktop share. While Bing’s share in the U.S. rose by 9 bps m/m, it recorded a slight drop in mobile but an increase in desktop usage.

Additionally, the note highlighted a 1% decrease in traffic to Google’s site, bringing it to 2.7 billion visits. In comparison, traffic for ChatGPT remained flat at 82 million, while Bing’s experienced a 6% increase to 55 million and Gemini’s traffic decreased by 14% to 8 million. Despite the emergence of new AI-driven search platforms, their combined daily web traffic is still less than 0.2% of Google’s.

Bank of America is optimistic about the positive influence of AI monetization on search in 2024. Analysts expressed confidence in the ongoing integration of Gemini within the Google ecosystem, projecting that a broader rollout of AI features will enhance usage and lead to increased advertising spending on the platform.

However, they noted that the implications of the Department of Justice trial and the wider rollout of OpenAI’s SearchGPT present uncertainties for the stock. Still, the report emphasized that Alphabet’s robust data capabilities, technology, distribution network, and financial strength are expected to alleviate new competitive challenges.