Microsoft’s Bing has made a surprising leap, overtaking Daum for the first time to claim the third position in South Korea’s Internet search market. (Image courtesy of MS)
SEOUL, Aug. 11 (Korea Bizwire) – In a market long dominated by homegrown players, South Korea’s internet search landscape is showing signs of a significant shift.
Global tech giants Google and Microsoft’s Bing are steadily gaining market share, while local stalwarts Naver and Kakao’s Daum are seeing their once-ironclad grip on the market loosen.
The Naver Corporation headquarters (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
According to data from web analytics site Internet Trend, as of August 7, Naver was still leading the South Korean web search market with a 54.26% share.
However, Google has solidified its second-place position with a 37.61% share of the market, followed by Bing at 3.83% and Daum at 3.14%.
The combined market share of Google and Bing now stands at 41.44%, a figure that has consistently exceeded 40% since the beginning of August. This marks a notable increase from July’s average of 39.79%.
Google, which commands about 90% of the global search market, has been gradually expanding its footprint in South Korea, one of the few countries where it doesn’t hold the top spot. The tech giant’s average market share in July rose to 36.24%, up 2.02 percentage points from 34.22% in July of last year.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Bing has made a surprising leap, overtaking Daum for the first time to claim the third position. Bing’s average market share in July reached 3.55%, up from 2.69% a year earlier, representing a 0.86 percentage point increase.
The rise of these global players comes at the expense of local search engines. Naver’s market share dipped by 0.51 percentage points over the past year, while Daum saw a more significant decline of 1.12 percentage points.
South Korea remains one of the few countries, alongside China and Russia, where Google doesn’t dominate the search market. However, industry watchers suggest that the competitive landscape could be poised for further upheaval.
The recent introduction of OpenAI’s AI-powered search engine, SearchGPT, and a U.S. court ruling against Google for illegally abusing its market dominance have fueled speculation about potential shifts in the global search market dynamics.
“While Naver’s strong position in the domestic search market is unlikely to be shaken in the short term, it’s crucial to keep a close eye on the declining market share and evolving landscape,” said an unnamed IT industry insider.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
