comScore Reports Global Search Market Growth of 46 Percent in 2009

comScore announced the results of their latest search market study today.  The U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google Sites retains a commanding position in the global search market.

“The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem.”

Top Search Markets Worldwide

The total worldwide search market boasted more than 131 billion searches conducted by people age 15 or older from home and work locations in December 2009, representing a 46-percent increase in the past year. This number represents more than 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute. The U.S. represented the largest individual search market in the world with 22.7 billion searches, or approximately 17 percent of searches conducted globally. China ranked second with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion. Among the top ten global search markets, Russia posted the highest gains in 2009, growing 92 percent to 3.3 billion, followed by France (up 61 percent to 5.4 billion) and Brazil (up 53 percent to 3.8 billion).

Top 10 Countries by Number of Searches Conducted*

December 2009 vs. December 2008

Total Worldwide, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations

                                              Searches (MM)

                                                                     Percent
                                   Dec-2008       Dec-2009            Change

  Worldwide                          89,708        131,354             46%

  United States                      18,688         22,741             22%

  China                              11,778         13,278             13%

  Japan                               6,213          9,170             48%

  United Kingdom                      4,623          6,245             35%

  Germany                             4,079          5,609             38%

  France                              3,362          5,425             61%

  South Korea                         2,796          4,039             44%

  Brazil                              2,454          3,763             53%

  Canada                              2,900          3,710             28%

  Russian Federation                  1,735          3,333             92%

  *Searches based on "expanded search" definition, which includes searches at the top properties where search activity is observed,
   not only the core search engines.

Top Search Properties Worldwide

Google Sites ranked as the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google Sites achieved a 58-percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo! Sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches (up 13 percent), followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion searches (up 7 percent). Microsoft Sites saw the greatest gains among the top five properties, growing 70 percent to 4.1 billion searches, on the strength of its successful introduction of new search engine Bing. Russian search engine Yandex also achieved considerable gains, growing 91 percent to 1.9 billion searches.

Top 10 Search Properties by Searches Conducted

December 2009 vs. December 2008

Total Worldwide, Age 15+ – Home & Work Locations

                                                  Searches (MM)
                                                                     Percent                                        Percent
                                        Dec-2008      Dec-2009        Change

  Worldwide                              89,708       131,354            46%

  Google Sites                           55,638        87,809            58%

  Yahoo! Sites                            8,389         9,444            13%

  Baidu.com Inc.                          7,963         8,534             7%

  Microsoft Sites                         2,403         4,094            70%

  eBay                                    1,327         2,102            58%

  NHN Corporation                         1,892         2,069             9%

  Yandex                                    992         1,892            91%

  Facebook.com                            1,023         1,572            54%

  Ask Network                             1,053         1,507            43%

  Alibaba.com Corporation                 1,118         1,102            -1%

  *Searches based on "expanded search" definition, which includes searches at the top properties where search activity is observed,
   not only the core search engines.

Source: comScore

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