Despite having gotten the jump on Google when it launched the new Bing, featuring its own generative search experience fueled by GPT-4, data shows Microsoft has failed to gain market share.
In fact, if the latest numbers from StatCounter are directionally accurate, it appears Bing is actually losing market share to Google.
Why we care. It would be nice to live in a world where we didn’t have to rely so heavily on Google. It was encouraging to see Bing making some small gains. But we later learned the New Bing attracted new Edge users who then used Google Search. And now that Google has unveiled its Search Generative Experience, Bing has lost its first-mover advantage and it seems we won’t see a true search competitor anytime soon.
7.14%. That’s Microsoft Bing’s worldwide desktop market share as of April, according to Statcounter. The new Bing launched in February.
- Why this number is a problem: Bing’s market share peaked in October 2022, at 9.92%. And the 7.14% figure is actually lower than April 2022 (8.05%).
Meanwhile, Google’s desktop search market share is 86.71%.
2.79%. The picture gets even bleaker for Microsoft Bing when you look at search engine market share worldwide, across all devices (desktop, mobile, tablet), also via Statcounter. While Bing is at just 2.79%, Google is at 92.63%.
- Why this number is a problem: Bing’s market share peaked in October 2022, at 3.59%. And the 2.79% figure is actually lower than April 2022 (3.02%).
Google isn’t vying with Microsoft Bing. News headlines discussing the AI search competition between Google and Bing tend to focus on the rivalry element instead of simply admitting the reality. Which is that these two charts show Microsoft’s problem: even with the new Bing and all the investments Microsoft has made in search – they’re still not making meaningful gains on Google.
Granted, size isn’t everything. Microsoft’s advertising and search revenue increased 3.4% to just over $3 billion in its most recent earnings report.
But the search game? It’s over. Google won long ago.