Why Google Dominates the World? A Comparative & Qualitative Study

When talking about search engines, what platform comes to your mind? Most people will immediately think of Google.

Google is a highly successful search engine platform that has become top-of-mind in various parts of the world. Some people even consider Google not just a brand, but rather another term for the concept of "search engine" itself.

As of January 2024, Google continues solidifying its position as an unrivaled market leader with a market share reaching 91.47% (according to Statista) and 91.62% (according to StatCounter).

These percentages demonstrate Google's success as the primary reference for internet users worldwide.

However, with the development of search technology through AI (Artificial Intelligence) approaches and social media search, the future existence of Google has once again become a topic of discussion.

Through this blog, you can learn more about Google's dominance in various countries, the reasons for strengthening its current and future market share and position, as well as the comparative studies we conducted to analyze the validity of statements regarding Google's dominance. Read on for more details.

Search Engines that Challenge Google's Dominance

Based on previous market share statistics, Google indeed appears to dominate the rankings of various search engines worldwide.

However, in reality, some countries show a different trend, where Google is not the primary choice for data and information searches.

Several countries have preferences and specific regulations that sometimes lean towards local search engine platforms or other international alternatives.

At least, there are five search engine platforms that challenge Google's dominance in some countries. Here's a more detailed explanation.

Baidu in China

As of February 2024, Baidu continues to successfully dominate the Chinese and surrounding regions with a market share of up to 60.11%. Do you know why Google cannot dominate the Chinese region?

One reason is the complexity of the Chinese language (e.g. words with the same spelling can have many meanings). In this regard, Baidu is certainly more adept at processing queries as it is specifically designed to operate in Mandarin.

Additionally, Baidu's search algorithm is more focused on contextual relevance for local searches. Google, both in the realm of business and technology, appears to still struggle with displaying search results in Mandarin.

Furthermore, internet censorship policies in China also increasingly make Baidu the top choice as it has been tailored to local regulations and needs.

Yandex in Russia

Yandex is a search engine that challenges Google's dominance in Russia with a market share of up to 71.53%.

Just like Google, Yandex can provide relevant search results and offer many features such as maps and translators.

However, compared to Google, Yandex can present more relevant local search results while also including specific information for each user's region.

Not only that, Yandex also excels in understanding the highly complex Russian language. Its algorithm has been designed to interpret searches in the Russian language even with misspellings. 

In fact, Yandex can also detect search queries in CrazyFont (Russian phonetic spelling in the Latin alphabet), which is essentially difficult for Google to handle.

Naver in South Korea

Based on our research, the market share status of search engines in South Korea varies significantly.

According to StatCounter, Google still dominates the market share in South Korea with a figure reaching 61.31% as of February 2024.

Meanwhile, according to Similarweb, there are 2 search engines dominating in this country with a relatively small difference in numbers.

Although Google appears to dominate, it cannot be denied that the usage of Naver is also significant, accounting for up to 40.99% of the total market share.

The Google statistics above mostly refer to the usage of Google products other than the search engine, considering Google offers more than 200 products and services.

Since Naver was created directly in South Korea, the Naver search engine always manages to maintain its focus on the demographic there.

Additionally, Naver's search algorithm is based on the Korean language, making local search results much more relevant compared to Google.

Is Google Starting to Lose Its Influence?

Recently, CNBC News released a video discussing Google's influence and dominance over recent times. There was one core question being addressed:

Find the full answer in the following discussion.

Google vs. Social Media Search

CNBC News showcased several clips from a popular social media platform, TikTok. In these clips, various content creators expressed that they are increasingly moving away from Google and opting to search through social media platforms

Google's Senior Vice President, Prabhakar Raghavan, at Fortune’s 2022 Brainstorm Tech, also elaborated on their research findings, indicating that nearly 40% of Gen Z individuals no longer open Google Maps or Google Search when looking for restaurants or cafes. Instead, they prefer using TikTok or Instagram.

The reason is simple. They are not just seeking information about restaurants or cafes, but they also want to experience the visual and social aspects accompanying it.

Google vs. AI

Apart from social media, Google's position is also being discussed again with the emergence of many AI (Artificial Intelligence)-based platforms, especially ChatGPT.

However, the fact is, 7 years ago, Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, already declared that Google would undergo a massive shift "from mobile first to AI first" and become the first AI company.

This is evidenced by Google's earlier acquisition of the AI company DeepMind in 2014. However, according to some parties, as explained by CNBC News in their video, ChatGPT is much more agile in leveraging the momentum and implementation of this AI technology.

During the Alphabet Q4 2023 Earnings Call, Justin Post, Managing Director of Bank of America, asked Sundar Pichai if there were significant changes (both negative and positive) in search query volume and how Google could continue to dominate other AI tools.

Responding to the question, Sundar Pichai emphasized that Google has a much longer track record, so the innovations displayed are certainly much stronger and adequate. He also underscored that generative AI is a new tool in the search engine realm.

Google then responded to the development of generative AI by releasing the Search Generative Experience (SGE). Although the majority of mass focus is directed towards AI platforms, believed to surpass Google, SGE still successfully garnered the attention of important investors. Below is a graph showing investor interest in Google SGE.

What Lies Ahead for Google's Market Share?

Although some segments of society are beginning to change their search habits, it is difficult to say that Google's market share can be completely overtaken.

First, let's examine how Google can continue to maintain its existence amid the proliferation of searches through social media.

The presence of social media search can indeed accelerate the conversion of content from text search queries and display search results in image or video formats more efficiently. One social media platform often used as a search engine is TikTok.

However, in some countries, such as India, France, Japan, and Afghanistan, there are strict policies regarding the use of social media, especially TikTok.

For example, India has blocked the social media platform citing reasons such as its algorithm being incomprehensible to them or being considered a threat to user privacy and security.

The Indian Ministry of Technology has asserted that TikTok and other Chinese-made apps can threaten the sovereignty, integrity, defense, and security of the country, as reported by CNBC Indonesia.

Second, how does Google's existence fare amid the popularity of AI-based chatbot platforms?

Not content with just being a search engine platform, Google continues to expand its wings to surpass boundaries in the field of technology by giving birth to Gemini.

According to Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google Deepmind, Gemini is equipped with a much more sophisticated system considering its estimated development cost of hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Apart from the vast research resources, Google has also invested in a new generation AI infrastructure to replace PaLM 2, the latest AI model behind all Google AI services (e.g. Duet AI in Workspace applications and Bard chatbot).

Why Is Google Successfully Dominating the Majority of Countries?

Have you ever wondered what the actual reasons are behind Google's massive dominance?

Its dominant position with a market share of up to 91.47% is certainly not without reason. You may have often read technical reviews explaining why Google successfully dominates the majority of countries in the world.

This time, we're taking a new approach to present the reasons for Google's dominance from various perspectives of native users that we found on the X platform (formerly Twitter).

In-Depth and Relevant Answers

Google is believed to excel over other search engine platforms because it continues to be the winner in delivering relevant and in-depth search results.

We also tried a simple search by entering the query "Who invented the search engine," and here are the results displayed by Yandex.

Instead of answering our question, the search results show more options for search engines that can be used besides Google. Surely, this differs from the answer the user expects (search intent).

On the other hand, on Google, users typically are immediately presented with relevant results, even in highlighted features as shown in the following picture.

Prioritizing Authoritative and Credible Sources

In addition to relevant results, Google also continues to earn users' trust by prioritizing evergreen content from non-profit organizations and providing comprehensive information without commercial involvement.

Extraordinary Research & Development Efforts

It's no secret that Google doesn't hesitate to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on its research efforts. According to @hunterxnicholas on the X platform, one reason why Google's market share is so dominant is because they continuously conduct market research and never hesitate to invest in developing their ecosystems.

UI/UX Design with Strong Characteristics

Sometimes, simplicity is everything when we talk about UI/UX design preferred by users.

@linasbeliunas states through X that the simple interface of Google is one of the strengths of this platform.
 

Google's Ecosystem is Highly Robust and Diverse

If you think Google is just a search engine, then you're mistaken. One reason behind Google's massive market share is its incredibly massive, expansive ecosystem, all contributing significantly to each other.

Apart from providing a highly popular search engine platform, Google also offers many additional platforms and devices to support people's daily needs.

As strong evidence, Google can be found on almost all types of browsers, whether through smartphones, laptops, PCs, or various smart devices like Alexa, Google Home, and Siri.

Comparative Study of Google Search Results vs AI

In addition to gathering some user opinions on Google's dominance, we also conducted a comparative study to compare Google search results with one of the leading AI platforms, ChatGPT.

How-To Questions

First of all, we posed how-to questions that refer to specific steps to accomplish something.

When we entered the keyword "how to change a car battery," Google displayed several articles from trusted sources in the automotive niche. 

Google's search engine is also known for its ability to display various answers. This means that when users enter a specific question query, Google can present various results (which can be blogs or articles) from different perspectives.

For example, in the image above (Figure 11), the top two articles displayed by Google present different perspectives, namely (1) the steps to install a car battery; and (2) how to change a battery to avoid errors.

Additionally, Google also displays several YouTube video suggestions to maximize user understanding, especially for those who prefer video-based tutorials. Below are the results displayed by Google:
 

Meanwhile, when we asked the same question to ChatGPT, here are the results displayed:

Not much different from the search results displayed by Google, ChatGPT also presents how to change a car battery sequentially, step by step.

From the image above, it can also be seen that ChatGPT provides concise and straightforward answers (suitable for users who dislike verbose information).

However, unfortunately, this democratization approach of answers makes generative AI seem to claim the correct answer outright by only presenting one perspective, thus resulting in minimal diversity of information.

Unlike ChatGPT, Google can provide a considerable number of answer options. Although ranked in the SERP, Google still emphasizes that users have full control to determine the most ideal answer for them.

Notice the example article displayed by Google in the first position below.

The image above is a snippet of an article published by the top site on Google at the time, which is a multinational and authoritative company in the automotive field.

Unlike the results displayed by ChatGPT, the search results on Google provide more comprehensive elaboration from various perspectives (suitable for users seeking detailed explanations).

Variations in perspectives within answers can be found by users accessing several different websites according to their needs and search intent.

Query Related to Data and Research 

To answer comprehensive questions regarding research data and information, it must be acknowledged that Google does indeed dominate, especially with the presence of Google Scholar.

Below are the answer results from ChatGPT when we queried "speech error in child study in 2023".

ChatGPT cannot display comprehensive results for requests related to recent research data and findings. However, the platform still explains the scope of the research topic queried.

On the other hand, here are the search results displayed by Google:

From the image above, it can be seen that Google immediately displays results from reliable sources, including official university websites and authoritative journals.

Additionally, users can also utilize features below the search bar, such as PDF, Books, and News, which would be very useful in this topic.

In addition to specialized features referring to the education field, Google also continues to update its vertical search feature variants regularly to make them more comprehensive and varied.

Nowadays, users can explore various relevant search formats with their search queries through features like Google News, Image, Maps, Flights, Shopping, and many more.

Thus, the review concludes the reasons behind Google's dominance with qualitative and comparative study approaches.

One key factor in Google's dominance is its strong focus on prioritizing user experience and maximizing it to be more personal and relevant. This creates a positive cycle where users tend to remain loyal to Google products.

Furthermore, Google continues to develop new technologies and innovations to maintain its competitive advantage. Acquisition of startup companies and investment in research and development also further support Google to stay at the forefront of the information technology and search engine industry.

Maximize Business Visibility on Google and Other Search Engines with cmlabs

Based on the information above, it can be concluded that despite the expanding presence of AI and social media search, the search engine market share is predicted to remain dominant.

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