Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Search engines: alternatives to Google - statistics & facts
For over two decades, Google has led the online search market worldwide, trumping competitors in reach, traffic, and advertising volume. On the other side of the front, competing search engines have been trying to seize opportunities against their leading player, with regional and demand-specific alternatives seeking to offer a more focused view, with algorithms tailored to their local audiences, languages, and needs. The AI-powered online search market trend set by the chatbots performing online searches in a dialogue format shakes a seeming steady sector, opening a new array of opportunities for old-timers and newcomers to breach into the tech giant's long-standing monopoly.
Google’s monopoly has also been questioned through multi-billion anti-trust fines, as controversies surrounding how big tech handles user data and online privacy drives more users to look for alternative search providers. Enter U.S.-based and privacy-focused engine DuckDuckGo, which has seen a boost in its market share in the country to around two percent throughout 2023. Focusing on the sustainability front, Germany-based Ecosia directs its profits toward reforestation projects worldwide and has been experiencing a slight surge in Europe and other major markets.
This shift in the search engine industry is giving a temporary advantage to Google's competitors. Sparking the interest of U.S. customers, AI-powered search audiences projected to increase exponentially, with many users are already preferring generative AI as their primary means of searching for information online. With a multitude of companies trying to establish themselves as viable alternatives in a new field, their opportunity lies in how well they can address user’s demands and develop throughout the AI wave.
Seizing the moment and place
Tailored on the demands of their local markets, Russia and China’s extensive internet landscapes are dominated by their respective domestic engines, Yandex and Baidu. The first has been expanding inside and outside Russia and now has the world’s third-largest search share, while the latter holds more than 60 percent of the search market in China and is one of the country's most important internet companies. South Korea also has its own equivalent Naver, which figures among the nation’s ten biggest businesses.Google’s monopoly has also been questioned through multi-billion anti-trust fines, as controversies surrounding how big tech handles user data and online privacy drives more users to look for alternative search providers. Enter U.S.-based and privacy-focused engine DuckDuckGo, which has seen a boost in its market share in the country to around two percent throughout 2023. Focusing on the sustainability front, Germany-based Ecosia directs its profits toward reforestation projects worldwide and has been experiencing a slight surge in Europe and other major markets.
The AI-powered wave
As if those were not enough issues for Google, the release of ChatGPT set new standards on how to do online searches, turning the red alert on for the company. Rushing to present its own alternative, its first answer was a scrambled release of its own conversational AI service Bard. Despite coming back atop the AI race by rebranding its assistant as Gemini and releasing it as a mobile app, Google’s once-seemingly unbeatable traffic share and network websites’ ad revenues have already suffered their most severe hit in a long time. Hiking on the AI-powered trend through its integration and investments with OpenAI’s GPT service, Google’s biggest and long-time competitor Bing has been gaining global traction over the past three years. Microsoft’s engine, which also powers other services like Yahoo! and Ecosia, saw its rates on desktop devices jump over 10 percent for the first time in a decade.This shift in the search engine industry is giving a temporary advantage to Google's competitors. Sparking the interest of U.S. customers, AI-powered search audiences projected to increase exponentially, with many users are already preferring generative AI as their primary means of searching for information online. With a multitude of companies trying to establish themselves as viable alternatives in a new field, their opportunity lies in how well they can address user’s demands and develop throughout the AI wave.
