When optimizing websites, the focus is (almost) always on Google. After all, the top dog has no competition – or does it?
The latest search engine market share figures speak a different language. It is worth taking a look at alternatives, not only in a global comparison, but also in Germany.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine in particular is currently experiencing a small comeback. Let’s take a look at the figures!
The most popular search engines worldwide
Google, Bing and Yahoo are still among the most popular search engines worldwide. All other alternatives have a combined market share of just 4.05%.
The pioneer Google dominates the market environment with a market share of around 86.95% for desktop searches.
Bing comes in at a whopping 6.14%.
Yahoo sneaks into third place with a market share of 2.86%.
Other search engines share the remainder of 4.05%.
Of course, the figures speak for themselves: Google is still the number 1 search engine. However, considering the sheer number of search queries per day (several billion), the 13.05% share of other search engines is also quite significant.
| Search engine | Market share |
| 86,95% | |
| Bing | 6,14% |
| Yahoo | 2,86% |
| Other | 4,05% |
Source: Statista
The picture for the German market is very different. Here, Bing was able to catch up strongly, at least for desktop searches. There are also new candidates in the race!
Market shares of the most popular search engines in Germany (desktop)
How does the balance of power differ in Germany? Let’s take a look at the latest figures (January 2021):
In January 2021, Google had a market share of “only” 83.97% for search queries from desktop devices.
Microsoft’s alternative Bing achieved a strong 11.27%.
New in the race: The sustainable search engine Ecosia and the privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo each have a market share of 1.45% and 1.15% respectively.
Yahoo is up 1.08%.
Let’s compare these values with the data on mobile searches.
Market shares of the most popular search engines in Germany (mobile)
In mobile search, Google dominates almost unrivaled with a share of 97.37% of search queries.
All other competitors were beaten by less than one percent.
Here again desktop and mobile in comparison:
| Search engine | Desktop | Mobile |
| 83,97% | 97,37% | |
| Bing | 11,27% | 0,66% |
| Ecosia | 1,45% | 0,70% |
| DuckDuckGo | 1,15% | 0,56% |
| Yahoo | 1,08% | 0,29% |
Source: Statista
How can these differences be explained?
Why do the market shares of the search engines differ so much when you look at the figures for mobile and desktop?
I think 3 factors play a role here:
Windows
Windows is still the most widely used operating system in Germany. Their Internet Explorer – now Microsoft Edge – has been able to make up for many of its old teething troubles in recent years.
This means that more people will probably accept it as their standard browser again. And of course Bing is the default search engine there (and Microsoft goes to great lengths to force its own browser on you…).
New preferences
The topics of data protection and sustainability are becoming increasingly popular with the general public. The increasing number of users of search engines such as Ecosia or DuckDuckGo is a consequence of this.
Google’s huge advantage in the smartphone sector
One reason why Google is unrivaled in the mobile segment is, in my opinion, its huge competitive advantage. Google has claimed a huge market share for itself with its own Android operating system. There is no question that they set their search engine as the default.
Google is also (still) the default search engine on Apple devices. This makes them the standard on almost all available mobile devices. The average user will not change this. Especially since Google delivers very reliable and good results. You have to leave it at that.
