Microsoft Bing only grew U.S. search engine market share from 9.3 percent in August to 9.4 percent in September, according to comScore. The drop dovetails, albeit conservatively, with the September statistics from HitWise and StatCounter. Financial analysts predicted this would happen as curiosity about Bing, fueled by a $100 million marketing campaign, cooled. Google again led the way with 64.9 percent of the search engine market in September.
Microsoft Bing only grew U.S. search engine market share from
9.3 percent in August to 9.4 percent in September, according to new results
from comScore released Oct. 13.
Google, which will announce third-quarter results Oct. 15, again led the way with 64.9 percent of
the search engine market in September, climbing from its 64.6 percent share in
August.
Bing's minor growth contrasts sharply with its growth
from July to August, when it rose from 8.9 percent to 9.3 percent, and from June to July, when it
grew from 8.4 percent to 8.9 percent, according to comScore's statistics.
Resource Library:
The drop also dovetails, albeit conservatively, with the
September statistics from HitWise and StatCounter. HitWise found Bing fell from 9.49 percent in August to 8.99 percent in September. StatCounter concluded
Bing had a more precipitous drop from 9.6 percent in August to 8.5 percent in September.
Financial analysts predicted this would happen as
curiosity about Bing, fueled by a $100 million marketing campaign, cooled. Some
are even suggesting Bing's dip is the result of the dreaded N-word: novelty.
"Bing's 10 bp share gain in September was its lowest
monthly increase since its launch, suggesting the search engine's novelty with
users may be wearing off," BroadPoint AmTech analyst Benjamin Schachter
wrote in a research note about the new ComScore numbers Oct. 13.
"The rebound in Google market share speaks to its
brand affinity and may be the erosion of Bing's novelty factor," wrote
Jefferies Research analyst Youssef Squali in a research note Oct. 14.
Despite the hint that users are growing lukewarm to Bing,
Efficient Frontier said Oct. 13 Bing
boasted nice gains in U.S. spend and click share for the third-quarter. Bing's
share of spending grew to 5.3 percent in the third quarter, up from 4.3 percent
in the second quarter. Bing also saw click share rise to 4.8 percent from 4.1
percent.
No. 2 search player Yahoo, which launched a new search
interface and embarked on a $100 million ad campaign last month, is
losing share to Bing and Google. Yahoo's search share fell 50 basis points from August to September,
going from 19.3 percent to its current 18.8 percent share -- its lowest ever.
Still, Microsoft and Yahoo are in the midst of a search
combination that would see Bing power Yahoo search, giving Microsoft roughly 28
percent of the search market. That's still miles away from Google, but a great
deal better than Bing's
current single digit share of 9.3 percent.
"While it is hard to predict whether Bing gains are
sustainable, we believe Bing's momentum and increased scale from Yahoo (once
the deal gets regulatory approvals) should help both companies compete more effectively with Google,"
Squali wrote.
He continued:
"While the loss of share amid mounting competition
between Google and Microsoft highlights why Yahoo was prudent in doing the deal
with Microsoft, the company needs to prevent further erosion to its owned and
operated traffic if it is to maintain a healthy revenue stream from Microsoft.
We expect Yahoo's investment in a differentiated search user interface (UI) and
the $100 million ad campaign launched recently to help in that regard."
Search Engines 
