Poor People Use Yahoo, Those Better Off Use Google
New data released by Hitwise yesterday shows that the difference between those using Yahoo and Google can be shown by the wealth of each user. — The graph right demonstrates “Online Representation” based on demographic types.
Context & Ripple Effects
Hitwise's demographic split reinforces a 2005 finding that Google users were wealthier and more internet-savvy, giving the search rivalry an audience-composition dimension rather than just a traffic comparison.
That dimension sits alongside Yahoo's stronger search-quality rating in a 2007 study and its US user-satisfaction edge. The competing measures show that perceived product quality and the commercial profile of an audience do not necessarily move together.
First-order effects
- Google gains third-party evidence that its search audience skews toward higher-income users, a useful distinction for its advertising business.
- Yahoo is identified with a less-affluent search audience in the Hitwise data, despite earlier favorable measures of search quality and satisfaction.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers evaluating Google and Yahoo have a clearer reason to segment search spending by audience profile, rather than treating search reach as interchangeable.
- Yahoo's sales proposition faces greater pressure to demonstrate the value of its audience through engagement or search performance, while Google can pair scale with a higher-spending-user narrative.
Third-order effects
- If demographic composition becomes a standard buying criterion, search competition shifts further from product rankings toward the relative monetizability of each platform's users.
- Third-party measurement firms such as Hitwise gain influence over advertising-market positioning by defining the audience metrics buyers use to compare platforms.
The trend: Search platforms are increasingly competing for advertising budgets on the composition and spending potential of their audiences, not solely on search quality or user satisfaction.