Microsoft integrated ChatGPT into Bing, and with the push of GPT-4, it has its own generated search experience, which can be said to have snatched the limelight from "search king" Google. However, although it has occupied plenty of column and media coverage, the actual impact on market share may be surprising.
According to data service provider StatCounter, in April, Microsoft Bing's desktop search market share was 7.14%, which is lower than the peak of Bing's market share of 9.92% in October last year, before ChatGPT was released. In contrast, Google's search engine has 86.71% of desktop market share, an increase of about 3 percentage points from last year.
After including other devices such as mobile phones and tablets in the calculation, the situation is even worse. Bing's overall market share has dropped to 2.79%, while Google continues to dominate with a market share of 92.63%.
If StatCounter's latest data is accurate, then Bing seems to be losing market share to Google and other competitors.
What is the problem? After all, ChatGPT's version of Bing has been regarded as a strong rival to Google since its inception, and Bing now has more than 100 million active users every day.
The decrease in market share may indicate that Bing may still be too time-consuming and unreliable as a search tool.
Some people think that many people use ChatGPT version of Bing to play with AI, treating it as a novel and interesting toy. However, once they have a real search demand, search engines like Google are still the first choice. Especially since Google recently embedded generative AI technology into the search engine, Bing's task of grabbing food from Google's mouth has become even more difficult.
In addition to Google, Microsoft Bing also faces many challenges, such as user loyalty, brand awareness, and quality perception. In addition, Bing must compete with emerging competitors such as Duck Duck Go and Yandex.
Indeed, market share does not explain everything. The first-quarter financial report showed that Microsoft's advertising and search revenue grew by 3.4% to $3 billion.
In March, Bing's traffic growth exceeded Google's. Analysis company Similarweb reported that after adding AI functions, Bing's page views increased by 15.8%, while Google's page views slightly decreased by nearly 1%. Interest in Bing is growing among users, so the outside world may need more patience.
in Insights
James Huang
August 11, 2024