Bing Still Has Zing, Google More Bling–But Yahoo No-Thing
by Kara Swisher
Posted on October 13, 2009 at 9:27 PM PT
According to the latest data from comScore, which are the most widely regarded by Wall Street, Bing has not lost search market share in the U.S., as some recent reports had suggested.
The September qSearch report, which was released to clients today, shows the Microsoft (MSFT) search service with a 9.4 percent share, compared to 9.3 percent a month earlier.
Dominant search giant Google (GOOG) also saw a slight uptick to almost 65 percent. Yahoo (YHOO), which just began a $100 million marketing campaign, saw share drop a half-point to just under 19 percent.
Both the market shares of Ask and AOL remained constant at almost four percent and three percent, respectively.
The comScore (SCOR) data on Bing counter two earlier reports that showed declines.
Here is J.P. Morgan analyst Imran Khan on the new data, as well as a table from comScore (click on it to make it larger):
Search Market Share Trends: comScore Releases September 2009 Search Data
ComScore released September 2009 qSearch volume and market share data for the US. We note that this is only one data point and is not necessarily predictive of 3Q performance. Following are the data highlights:
* According to the data, total US core search volume increased 17.3% Y/Y in September, a slight decline from 19.2% Y/Y growth in August. The total 3Q Y/Y growth rate was 17.3% vs. 2Q’s 31.1% Y/Y growth.
* Google domestic core search market share was 64.9% in September, up slightly from 64.6% in August. Google grew September core search volume by 20.9% Y/Y, down slightly from 21.6% Y/Y growth in August. Google domestic core search volume growth of 21.1% Y/Y in 3Q, is below 2Q’s 37.7% Y/Y increase.
* Yahoo! domestic core search market share dropped to 18.8% in September from 19.3% in August. Yahoo! grew September core search volume by 9.0% Y/Y, down from 16.8% Y/Y growth in August. Yahoo!’s 3Q domestic core search volume growth of 11.6% Y/Y is below 2Q’s 27.1% Y/Y growth.
* Microsoft domestic core search market share was up at 9.4% in September vs. 9.3% in August. Microsoft grew September core search volume by 30.7% Y/Y, down slightly from 31.9% Y/Y growth in August. Microsoft domestic core search volume for 3Q was up 25.8% Y/Y, above 2Q’s 20.4% Y/Y growth.
* Ask Network domestic core search market share was flat M/M at 3.9%. Ask grew September core search volume by 6.1% Y/Y, down slightly from 6.7% Y/Y growth in August. Ask Network domestic core search volume was up by 4.5% Y/Y in 3Q vs. 15.6% Y/Y growth in 2Q.
* AOL September domestic core search market share was flat M/M at 3.0%. AOL September core search volume declined 13.5% Y/Y, a slight deceleration from August’s 17.6% Y/Y declines. AOL domestic core search volume was down 15.4% Y/Y in 3Q vs. 2Q’s 5.1% Y/Y decline.
