All along, when it comes to search, the first thing everyone thinks of and uses is Google, so Google Search’s market share is extremely high. Even though Microsoft, Yahoo, and other search engine services continue to improve, they still can’t catch up to Google. However, with the advent of AI, it seems to have begun affecting the search engine market. The latest statistics report shows that Google’s market share has fallen below 90% for the first time since 2015, indicating that a large number of users have started switching to other search services.
Statcounter’s latest data shows Google’s market share has begun to decline noticeably.
Google has maintained a market share of over 90% since 2015, peaking at more than 93% in early 2023. However, as AI services began to emerge at the end of that year and advanced at an extremely rapid pace, 2024 also saw the rise of numerous AI search engine services, such as Perplexity、Felo Search etc., even ChatGPT’s AI search featureIt also caught up with last year’s launch, which has also led to fewer and fewer people using Google Search.
According to the latest data released by Statcounter, Google’s search market share fell below 90% in the last 3 months of 2024, suggesting it’s likely not a short-term trend but a real impact. It dropped to 89.34% in October, 89.99% in November, and 89.73% in December.
Compared to traditional search, the advantage of AI search is that there’s a high chance you’ll get the answer you need in one go, and it’s more detailed and already organized for you. Although at this stage you may need to verify the content yourself, it still saves a lot of time.
Of course, Google also has its own AI Overviews search, which displays at the top of Google search results pages. However, development has been far too slow. Even though it’s already available in Taiwan, it still doesn’t support Chinese, so for Chinese users, it’s practically unusable, not to mention there are other limitations.
Looking only at the Asian region, it’s the same, and the decline came a month earlier, dropping from above 90% to 89.01% last September:
Although the data cannot directly prove that users have all shifted to AI search, at present, AI search is the most likely explanation.
Other companies’ search engines have existed for so long without ever being able to shake Google’s dominance, and AI search mainly took off in 2024, so I think the answer is yes.
For my personal use, I really do use Google Search far less than before. Now when I need to look up information or find answers, I use ChatGPT Search or Perplexity. Not only can I quickly find the results I need, but I can also quickly request follow-up actions, like turning things into tables, generating FAQs, and so on. Google Search is only used now when I need to find a specific website.
As Statcounter statistics emerge, I hope Google will speed up and fully integrate AI search features into its traditional search engine, making them available to users worldwide. If it keeps dragging on like this, by the time everyone is used to using search engines from other AI services, it will only become harder for Google to win back its original users.
Data Source:Statcounter
Source: KOCPC Chinese