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According to web analytics firm Statcounter , Bing has registered it’s first decline since its launch, Bing has lost more than one percentage of the search marketing in US in September.
Its market share fell from 8.51% to 9.64% in August. During this time Yahoo also showed a decline in its market share to 9.40 % from 10.50 %. Although Bing’s decline has been just over one percentage point, it sure would be a worrying factor for Microsoft.
With Bing and Yahoo losing market shares in the month of september, it should be no surprise who gained from them. Google gained by almost two percentage points to 80.08% in September from 77.83% the previous month.
As per StatsCounter the Data is based on an analysis of 4.6 billion search engine referring clicks (1.1 billion from the US) which were collected during the period September 2008 to September 2009 from the StatsCounter network of over three million websites.
Steve Ballmer’s is on a battle front in the online search engine market with the launch of Bing, he has made his intention very clear that Bing will be a serious contender to Google and Yahoo’s share in the search market. Microsoft’s share of the US searches is about 8 % , a distant third behind Google and Yahoo.
A look at Microsoft’s different search efforts in the last six months (the bid to buy Yahoo’ search capabilities and the successful launch of Bing ) shows that Steve Ballmer is a persistent guy. And now, Ballmer may be ready to try harder than ever, as he’s voiced a willingness to spend something like $2.25 billion per year on search.
According to Reuters , Ballmer said at a business lunch, “Our shareholders, I told them we were willing to spend 5 to 10 percent of operating income for up to five years in this business, and we feel like we can get an economic return.”
Bing grabbed 12.1 % of the US Internet searches for the june 8 – 12 work week, up from 11.3 % from June 1-5 compared to Google’s 65 % of US searches in May. Ballmer is counting on Bing’s ability to provide more focused search results to lure web users away from Google and Yahoo. Bing was launched this month replacing the company’s previous Live search engine.
Microsoft’s operating income in 2008 equaled $22.49 billion, so that’s a not-quite-commitment of about $1.12 billion to $2.25 billion annually or more, since Microsoft’s likely to pull in greater sums of money in the years ahead.
Ballmer said, “In our industry, the number one mistake that people make is that they quit too early. We should have started earlier, but we’ve got our mojo working now I am willing to be patient to give Microsoft’s Bing search engine time to catch on with web users ”
Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing got off to a good opening week of its public launch, according to an early report from comScore
The results of the analysis showed a substantial improvement in Microsoft’s position in the search market in the days after Bing’s launch, something that Live could not live upto since its launch.
Microsoft increased its average daily penetration among U.S. searchers from 13.8 percent during the period May 26-30 to 15.5 percent during the period of June 2-6, an indication that the search engine is reaching more people than before.
Microsoft’s share of search results pages in the U.S., increased from 9.1 percent to 11.1 percent during the same time frame.
“These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft’s position in the search market,” said Mike Hurt, comScore senior vice president.
“So far it appears that the lifts in searcher penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period. The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users. It appears it is off to a good start.”
Google Analytics report for this blog shows a high number of users from Bing.com in the last week. The referral numbers from Bing are much higher than the combined referrals from Live in the past three to four months. What has been your experience with Bing, have you seen any referrals to your website from Bing.
After a good first week will Bing be able to sustain its position in the search market ?
