Iraq, not the United States, is the country with the highest Google usage

Google’s Influence and dominance in search engines is undeniable. However, although it is a US company with headquarters in Silicon ValleyThe distribution of this search engine in the USA is lower than the global average.

In contrast, and somewhat surprisingly, Iraq and India are the countries where Google is used the most, with usage rates exceeding 98%.

According to data from Statista, the countries where Google is most used (above the global average of 91.47%) are: Iraq, India, Egypt, Cuba, Spain, Venezuela, Brazil, South Africa, Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Australia and Mexico.

Percentage of Internet users who used Google as their primary search engine in selected countries (first half of 2024):

Iraq: 98.83%
India: 98.06%
Egypt: 97.74%
Cuba: 96.25%
Spain: 96.1%
Venezuela: 95.47%
Brazil: 95.18%
South Africa: 94.81%
Italy: 94.32%
Portugal: 93.98%
Morocco: 93.06%
Australia: 92.93%
Mexico: 91.47%
Worldwide average: 91.22%
France: 90.75%
Germany: 89.77%
United States: 87.14%
Japan: 77.88%
Russia: 28.2%
China: 2%

Source: Statista

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Yandex and Baidu: Regional market leaders challenging Google

Despite Google’s global dominance, there are markets where the company faces strong competition. In Russia and China, Yandex and Baidu are the leading search engines, holding over 60 percent market share in their respective countries.

These companies have successfully adapted to local needs and offer personalized services that resonate with users in their regions.

Personalization and localization of services are key to the success of these search engines. Although Google struggled to penetrate these markets due to political and regulatory hurdles, its attempts failed, allowing Yandex and Baidu to seize these opportunities and strengthen their presence.

Mobile search engine market share (July 2023 – June 2024):

Google: 95.18%
Yandex: 1.42%
Google: 1.11%
Google: 0.55%
Yahoo: 0.53%
Others: 1.22%

Desktop search engine market shares (July 2023 – June 2024):

Google: 82.28%
Google: 10.04%
Yahoo: 2.77%
Google: 2.28%
DuckDuckGo: 0.72%
Others: 1.92%

The advertising market: Google’s most important business

From Q1 2020 to Q4 2023, Google maintained its lead as the most used search engine by mobile users, with a market share of over 95% in Q4 2023.

This dominance was reflected in advertising revenue, which exceeded $85.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, setting a new financial record for the company.

Google’s primary source of revenue remains advertising, both on its websites and in its advertising network. Google’s ability to offer highly targeted and relevant ads has been critical to attracting advertisers and sustaining its growth in advertising revenue.

Google’s global advertising revenue (2006 – 2023) in billions of dollars:

2006: 10.49
2007: 16.41
2008: 21.13
2009: 22.89
2010: 28.24
2011: 36.53
2012: 43.69
2013: 51.07
2014: 59.62
2015: 67.39
2016: 79.38
2017: 95.58
2018: 116.46
2019: 134.81
2020: 146.92
2021: 209.49
2022: 224.47
2023: 237.86