Return On Now has previously shared the results of our own research in this topic area here on the site, and today we are offering you the updated numbers for search engine market shares across the top countries in the world.

After we found that there was little-to-no significant change in the data according to our sources, we skipped the project in 2014 to await further information that showed a change. Below you will find the most updated version of our search engine market share data.

This table includes numbers derived from various studies that released to the public between December, 2014 and September of 2015. In some cases, we had to rationalize conflicting data from multiple sources. For those situations, we blended and made a qualitative adjustment to ensure it is as accurate as possible.

Search Engine Market Share By Country: 2015 Update

As before, this table includes both the market leaders as well as the runners-up, when available. In markets where there were multiple runners-up search engines with similar or small shares of the market, we put them into a single bucket and called it “Others”.

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Observations on the Data

As with years past, it is important to know that we again had to adjust which countries we are able to cover based on available data. There are population counts, internet penetration numbers, and similar stats available for pretty much any country around the world. However, search engine market shares are available on only a select list of countries. You will notice that Czech Republic, Nigeria, and a few other countries are no longer represented in this table.

Google Continues Its World Domination

Unsurprisingly, Google is the top dog for the vast majority of countries. This is unchanged from years past, although they have gained or lost some of their lead in a few place. All in all, Google is far ahead of the race for most of the key countries around the globe.

Locations where other search engines hold significant market shares include:

China, where Baidu still commands a marked lead with 55% market share, followed by Qihoo 360 (formerly branded as 360 Search) has jumped from 21% to 28% share in 2015. Sogou lands out at third place with a 12.8% share. Baidu is no longer the only game in town. If you want to target Chinese internet users, all three search engines must be taken into account. Hong Kong, where Google leads by a large margin but Yahoo is hanging on at 24%, after coming in at 32% in the 2013 report. Japan, where Yahoo Japan maintains a 40% market share. Note that Yahoo Japan still serves up results using Google’s algorithm, meaning that Google is pretty much the “only show in town” for Japan. Russia, where Yandex has given back a bit to come in at 58% share (vs. 62% previously), while Google has surged from 26% in 2013 to 34% in 2015. Webcertain attributes this surge to the heavy adoption of the Chrome browser and Android-based phones within Russia over the past couple of years. South Korea, where Naver and Daum together have grown their dominance from 90% combined in 2013 to 97% in 2015. The United States, where Google continues to lead handily at 72%, but where Bing has come on strong to land at 21% share in 2015.

Aside from these six countries, Google holds a share of 87% or higher in all other locations highlighted within this year’s data. It’s safe to say that we live in a “Google” world, with respect to search engine market share.

India Is About To Become a Major Search Market

Anyone who works in the search game has likely come across some of the oddities associated with search in India. Much of the traffic from India is considered low quality here in the United States, but that is poised to change in the coming years.

With a population of around 1.3 billion, and internet penetration approaching 30% heading into 2016, India stands to have a TON of internet users and searches in the next few years. Some predictions have estimated that India will have in excess of 500 million internet users within the next 2-3 years. If you run a global business and haven’t figured out what to do about India’s fast growing search volume, it is time to take the market seriously – it will be the second most populous country for internet usage in the entire globe very soon!

Summary

And that closes out this installment of our search engine market share by country research. As you can see, much of the information is trending in a similar direction to previous market share research.

This data table is available for you to use on your own website. We just ask that you use the embed code above and attribute Return On Now as the source with a link back to this page. Thank you and enjoy the data!

Sources:

The Webcertain Global Search and Social Report 2015

Internet World Stats Website

CNZZ Data (Chinese Internet Usage Data Service)

ComScore Search Engine Data, September, 2015 (Factored into United States Estimates)

LiveInternet.ru (Stats on Russian Search Engine Usage)