Why it matters to you
It’s easy to write Bing off, but new usage data from Microsoft suggests that the search platform has managed to carve out its own niche in certain regions.
Microsoft’s search engine Bing was launched in an attempt to take on Google in 2009, but it has never really been able to muster up a serious challenge. However, the company recently released data that suggests that its search solution might be more popular than most would expect.
On Thursday, Microsoft hosted a webcast looking at the search platform’s automation features, dubbed “The Art and Science of Bing Ads.” While it was going on, the Bing Ads team tweeted out some interesting statistics about Bing usage around the world, according to a report from OnMsft.
Microsoft’s metrics indicate that Bing has a nine percent share of the global search market, handling 12 billion individual searches every month. It has a particularly strong user base in the United States, claiming 33 percent share of the overall market. It also caters to 25 percent of the search market in the United Kingdom.
These tweets were accompanied by the phrase, “Bing is bigger than you think,” which seems to be something of a slogan for this mini-campaign. From an advertising perspective, it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft to try to erase Bing’s reputation as a distant rival of the dominant Google, especially given its competitive performance in certain key markets.
Over the past 20 years, Google has become absolutely synonymous with web search functionality — the word is now firmly entrenched in the modern lexicon as a verb. Microsoft might never be able to knock Google from its perch, but the company has demonstrated time and time again that it is not going to give up on Bing.
In July, Microsoft rolled out a major update to the Android version of its Bing Search app, adding a whole host of new functionality and design refresh. Then there are projects like Face Swap, which uses a fun and frivolous photo effect in order to give users a taste of the Bing experience.
These statistics seem to suggest that Microsoft’s strategy is working. Is Bing the biggest name in search? Not by a long shot — but if it is preferred by a third of users in the U.S., it is not exactly an also-ran, either.