The fact that Google is, with  69% marketshare, the most popular search engine world wide, is no big surprise. The list of Google products seems to be sheer endless and a life without them unthinkable. There is no denying it – Google is and will remain big, its page rank algorithm crucial and the analytic tools super helpful to obtaining insight into new trends in consumer behavior. Optimisation for Google, adapting to the ever changing algorithm, and a glance at the local domains is always a good idea and great start for any online marketing campaign.

A digital landscape without search engines – hard to imagine!

But Google is by far not the only relevant search engine. Depending on the target market, a glance at the international alternatives is definetly worth while. Especially with the increasing internet access in formerly less digital countries such as Russia or China, keeping an open mind will be rewarded.

There is it the obvious, but not very exciting Google competitors Bing and Yahoo. Microsofts’ search engine Bing makes up around 12% of the the marketshare globally, a large part of which is due to the relative popularity in the US, where 20% of all searches are carried out through Bing. Yahoo! Search, largely powered by Bing, has almost 10% global marketshare in search queries.

“Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon.” – Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt

 What Schmidt said in 2014 is even more true today. Amazon, the e-commerce magnate, has 11 marketplaces worldwide, which function just like a product search engine. In countries such as Germany, where Amazon has long been established as an online retailer, Amazon does not only have a 30% marketshare for e-commerce, but is also used as an alternative to Google when looking for products – a search engine with high purchase intentions, if you like.

When looking to the international search engine landscape, a few surprises await. In China, where Google pages including Youtube, Gmail or GoogleDocs remain blocked, Baidu, the Chinese equivalent of search engine giant, is by far the most popular go-to page for search queries. Baidu offers multi-media search, enabling users to for example look for mp3s and movies and was the first to offer mobile search in China. Ranked 4th among Alexa’s top 500 websites, Baidu is placed before Yahoo! (Rank 5) and Bing (Rank 13). With a rapidly growing number of users, many (Google resembling) additional products, huge potential, Baidu promises to stay interesting in the near future.

Non-English-language Competitors

Another non-English-language search engine is Yandex (Alexa Rank 22). Yandex is the most visited website Russia and the country’s national search engine. Yandex offers, among other products, an electronic payment service, multiple apps, image search and music platform. With over 60% marketshare, it makes up for the majority of search queries, outperforming Google.ru and Rambler.

Digitally savvy South Korea also launched their own search engine in 1999: Naver. And at least in Korea, Naver is Google really giving a run for their money. The South Korean company has a marketshare of almost 50% in the online-shopping nation, compared to 36% marketshare for Google. Naver meets the Korean desire for the latest trends right on their front page: Instead of a blank query form, users find the most popular searches and keywords of the last hour on the homepage. Accordig to experts, this is partially why Google will never be able to dominate fully on the korean market: results on Naver is simply too adavanced in terms of culture, language and content quality.

It can be concluded that while Google will remain the major player in the field of search engines, it is definetly worth it to check out local competitors and make oneself accustomed to their features, rank system and advertising opportunities.