Bing has not broken into Google's market share

Even with a bolder AI strategy and a powerful partner in OpenAI, Bing hasn't shifted the search mountain that is Google

by Rob Corbidge

Published: 13:36, 18 August 2023

Last updated: 13:37, 18 August 2023

New data from US analytics firm Statcounter shows that Bing's share of the search market in the US hasn't grown despite being the first to roll out AI features.

Bing's best US performance was in March 2023, with a 6.61% share of the market. According to Statcounter's data, this is a worse performance than in 2022, when Bing enjoyed a market share of above 7%.

The figures are largely mirrored in the UK and EU countries.

Microsoft has disputed such data, according to the WSJ, saying that "third-party data companies aren’t measuring all the people who are going directly to Bing’s chat page".

The possibility also exists that users are not comfortable with an AI-chat interface.

Search is ultimately about advertising control, and Google is at heart an advertising business, with around 80% of revenue from that source. Microsoft by contrast, enjoys less than 6% of its revenue from advertising. The revamped AI Bing has hardly moved this dial.