Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Bing - statistics & facts
Bing’s trajectory is inevitably told alongside other companies, be it by its parent company, or the several deals the platform needed to close to oppose its main competitor. Despite the strong hand of Microsoft behind its operations, Bing still seems like a minor player in the global online search market, monopolized for more than a decade by Google. However, the rise of AI-powered search trend could potentially mark a turning point for online search, providing Bing with a chance for more time in the spotlight, powered by partnerships with ChatGPT, and experiments with chatbot functionalities in the web search realm.
Bing is most accepted in the United States, which accounts for a quarter of its worldwide online traffic and processes more than four million explicit core search queries powered by Microsoft Websites on a monthly basis. It repeats a similar performance in its biggest markets, such as Europe and the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, China generates around 35 percent of the search engines' global traffic, being a digital environment without Google as the market leader.
However, Bing’s relationship with OpenAI has faced challenges, as both companies have introduced similar AI products and work to enhance their features, despite Microsoft's investments and ties with OpenAI. As Bing ventures into AI, it may face simultaneous curiosity and skepticism from U.S. and worldwide consumers, like other AI-powered search engines. While many users are exploring more AI-based tools, most do not trust the content it provides, nor believe it would improve their search experience. Despite concerns and competitive agreements, developments in the search landscape present Bing with significant opportunities to leverage Microsoft's resources and partnerships to enhance its position in the market and, potentially, finally pose a challenge to Google's dominance.
The main alternative
Bing is widely recognized as the main search alternative to Google, holding a global search market share of around 3.43 percent across all devices. Achieving a record-high share of ten percent on desktop, Microsoft recently expanded its force over these devices. But even when being the second most remembered search brand across several markets, Bing faces a relative rejection compared to Google, which maintains its position as the default search engine on mobile devices through partnerships with manufacturers.Bing is most accepted in the United States, which accounts for a quarter of its worldwide online traffic and processes more than four million explicit core search queries powered by Microsoft Websites on a monthly basis. It repeats a similar performance in its biggest markets, such as Europe and the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, China generates around 35 percent of the search engines' global traffic, being a digital environment without Google as the market leader.
Bing’s shared history
Developed, owned, and operated by U.S. tech giant Microsoft, Bing was launched in 2009 as a rebranding of the company’s earlier MSN and Live Search engines. Poised to replace Yahoo!, Bing started powering most of the engine’s searches and gradually doing the same for other tools, from old-timers like AOL to newer solutions like DuckDuckGo and Ecosia. After ChatGPT was released in November 2022, Bing quickly allied itself with OpenAI’s in a deal where the startup provided its chatbot service while Bing turned into its staple search engine for the new software. This maneuver rendered Bing a surge in global traffic, as Microsoft reached its highest search advertising revenue to date, going from 6.94 billion U.S. dollars in 2021 to nearly 12.2 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2023.However, Bing’s relationship with OpenAI has faced challenges, as both companies have introduced similar AI products and work to enhance their features, despite Microsoft's investments and ties with OpenAI. As Bing ventures into AI, it may face simultaneous curiosity and skepticism from U.S. and worldwide consumers, like other AI-powered search engines. While many users are exploring more AI-based tools, most do not trust the content it provides, nor believe it would improve their search experience. Despite concerns and competitive agreements, developments in the search landscape present Bing with significant opportunities to leverage Microsoft's resources and partnerships to enhance its position in the market and, potentially, finally pose a challenge to Google's dominance.
