Analysts often put Google’s domestic share of the search market at around 70%. Some studies indicate that it is much much higher globally, especially in mobile.
Pindom published a chart today of Statcounter numbers that might well take the wind out of any sails at Yahoo or Microsoft in the mobile space. While Google owns 90% of the global market in non-mobile search (which is a lot higher than the <70% often reported in the US), its mobile search is rocketing toward 100%. Yahoo (YHOO), its closest competitor, doesn’t even hit the 1% mark and Yahoo is soon outsourcing its search to Bing. Meanwhile Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing has almost half a percentage point.
And that search number is on the rise. Last year, Google (GOOG) ‘only’ owned 95.58% of the mobile search market.
Google’s position looks pretty strong as well. Its own Android platform is gobbling up market share at the moment and it already has a foothold in other strong mobile platforms like Apple’s iOS.
Microsoft has got itself on Apple’s mobile devices of late by not only releasing a Bing search app, but also convincing Apple to let Bing be one of the (non-default) search options on the iOS browser.
That may not count for much.
Pingdom says Microsoft’s only real hope is on Windows Mobile 7, which is slated to be delivered later this year.
Google’s biggest threat may be its own success, which would invite government regulation. That’s something we are already seeing.