comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009
Google Sites Accounts for Two-Thirds of 131 Billion Searches Conducted Worldwide in December while Introduction of Bing Helps Microsoft Post Significant Gains During the Year — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) …
Context & Ripple Effects
The query volume curve comScore has been tracking since it counted 61 billion searches worldwide in October 2007 crossed the 100-billion-a-month mark in August 2009, and this January 2010 release puts December at 131 billion — a 46 percent gain for the year. The arc matters because the market is compounding on volume while share stays remarkably static at the top.
The one genuine shake-up in the data is Bing: comScore credits its mid-2009 introduction with Microsoft posting significant gains during the year, though Google Sites still held two-thirds of all December queries. PC World's syndicated angle flagged that China showed the smallest query growth among top markets, a reminder that the 46 percent headline masks very uneven regional expansion.
First-order effects
- Google enters 2010 holding two-thirds of a 131-billion-query month, meaning its ad inventory base grew far faster than any competitor's despite Microsoft's Bing-driven share gains.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's measurable Bing momentum pressures Yahoo and other second-tier engines to consolidate or differentiate, since comScore's numbers show share being won from them rather than from Google.
Third-order effects
- If query volume keeps doubling roughly every two years as it did from 2007's 61 billion onward, search economics shift toward whoever monetizes long-tail international queries first — and regional laggards like China become the contested growth frontier.
The trend: Global search is scaling into a two-tier market where volume compounds fastest internationally while the Google-versus-Bing share contest plays out over a shrinking remainder.