Google's 'Chrome' line of browsers are the leading products across essentially all devices and specifications, controlling nearly two thirds of the global web browser market. Google Analytics gives you the tools you need to better understand your customers. You can then use those business insights to take action, such as improving your website, creating tailored audience lists, and more.
- According to the web browser market share statistics, web browsers are part of what sparked the 'internet boom' in the 90s. From Netscape Explorer, down to Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Safari, and Chrome browser from Google, the web browser market has experienced fierce competition down the years with almost all competitors vying for the top spot at separate intervals.
- As of December 2020, Google Chrome accounted for about 66 percent of the global desktop internet browser market share. Around half of the world's population uses the internet on a regular basis.
- And so, in early March 2020, we know that the top web browser for the last three months - with 4.02 billion visits counted - was, drum-roll please, Google Chrome.
| IMPORTANT NOTICE: After 14 years of service and being used as a primary source in tens of thousands of articles and publications, we are retiring NetMarketShare in its current form. October, 2020 is the last month of data. All billing for existing accounts has been stopped. All outstanding balances are being refunded. Why? An upcoming change in browsers (https://github.com/WICG/ua-client-hints) will break our device detection technology and will cause inaccuracies for a long period of time. In addition, we have focused on bot detection and removal as a key part of the quality control process. It is the most complex part of our codebase. As time has gone on, it has become increasingly difficult to manage this process. So, instead of accepting increasing levels of inaccuracy, we thought it would be a good time to call it a day. The Future NetMarketShare will re-emerge at some point with a focus on ecommerce trends and verifiable user data. We want to thank everyone who used NetMarketShare over the years. This journey began with reporting on the browser wars, and was one of the most fascinating and fun products anyone could hope to work on. All the best, The NetMarketshare Team |
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Google is one company that is always on our minds.Whenever we have a question, or need directions, or want to see a picture ofsomething, almost the entire world first thinks to 'Google it.' In fact, thisexpression has become so common that 'Google' has been officially recognized by the OxfordEnglish Dictionary as a verb in the English language.
This should give us an idea of how significant Google hasbecome in our modern lives. But just how deep does Google's dominance go? Afterall, Google is much more than just a search engine. It's also an email client(Gmail), a social video site (YouTube), an office suite (Google Drive), amobile operating system (Android), and much, much more.
To help illustrate the extent and reach of Google, we'vecompiled a list of 27 statistics that will really take you back. Read each oneand try to place it into context and you will soon see just how influentialthis company is.
CompanyStats
Although the stats surrounding Google search and its otherproducts are impressive, we should never forget that Google is a massivecompany that controls a huge amount of capital in today's market. Here are somestats about the company to show you just how big it is:
1. Google'sMarket Value is currently $858 Billion
That's nearly a trillion dollars. But what's probably mostinteresting about this statistic is that Google's market value is growing. Justfive years ago, in 2015, thecompany was valued at less than $400 billion. The arrow continues topoint up, especially as Google gets more involved in the smart devices marketand expands its control over internet search.
2. Google Makes Over $110 Billion a Year onAdvertising
The folks at Google realized a long time ago thatcontrolling the catalog of the internet was going to be big business, onedriven mainly by advertising.
Google advertising works in a few ways. For one, they sellad space on search results pages to companies to provide its customers (thebusiness) with better visibility in front of their clients. This is the programthat used to be called Google AdWords but that is now referred to more simplyas Google Ads.
In addition, Google collects information about your searchhistory (and anything you do with Google, really) and uses that to deliverpersonalized ad experiences for websites that partner with it. This one of thereasons why you often start seeing ads for something you've recently searchedfor on your favorite sites.
Other companies, such as Facebook, do this as well, but judging by the massive amount of revenue thisgenerates for Google, it's safe to say they are one of the best.
3. Google's Parent Company, Alphabet, Profits About$30 Billion a Year
While most of us tend to think about Google as its owncompany, it's important to remember that Google is actually just one large partof a much bigger whole: the company Alphabet. The other major player in theAlphabet family is YouTube, but Alphabet is also the holding company for manymore companies.
Put together, all these companies make up the conglomerateAlphabet, which profits about $30 billion a year.And this number is growing every year. In 2017, just two years ago, the companymade a little more than $12 billion in profit.
4. Alphabet is the Fourth-Largest Company in the World
Not surprisingly, combining the power of YouTube andGoogle has turned Alphabet into one of the largest companies in the worldin terms of market value, revenue, and profit. The only companies considered tobe larger than it are Amazon (of course), Apple, and Microsoft. Alphabet's goalis likely to try and overtake these competitors, but Amazon will be a tough oneto beat.
5. Google Employs More than 100,000 People
Browser User Statistics
Despite being one of the largest and most profitablecompanies in the world, Google only has about 100,000 employees. This isstill not a small workforce by any means, but Alphabet doesn't come anywhereclose to being one of the world's largest employers.
That Google can be so profitable with so few people speaksto the company's culture, which is world-famous for being employee-focused andextremely productive. Jobs at Google continue to be some of the most sought afterin the world, and it appears things will stay the same movingforward.
6. Alphabet Is Made Up of More than 200 Companies
Although the two big names at the top of the Alphabetroster are Google and YouTube, Alphabet is actually much larger. The leaders ofGoogle formed Alphabet to serve as a holding company for other riskierendeavors that Google wants to explore. Some examples include Waymo, a companyworking to build self-driving cars, and Side Walk Labs, which specializes ininnovative urban planning.
Google also makes it a habit of buying up promisingstartups and funding them to see if they can be successful in the market.
All of this means that Alphabet now owns over 200 companies, many ofwhich do not turn a profit, meaning Google and YouTube carry them as they growroots. That's quite impressive when you think about it.
SearchStats
Most of us know Google as a search engine, and there's a good reason for that. Google is the predominant search engine in the world, andit shows no signs of giving up the massive lead it has built over the years. Hereare some stats about Google as a search engine:
7. There Are More Than 2 Trillion Google Searches EachYear
That's trillion with a 't.' To put it in perspective,that works out to more than five billion searches every day, 228 million everyhour, three million every minute, and 63 million every second.
These numbers seem astronomical and almost unbelievable atfirst glance, but in reality they make a lot of sense. Five billion searches aday means every adult in the world makes one search per day. But most of us domultiple, and many do none, hence the average.
That so many people search is not surprising. However,that they search almost exclusively on Google is, and that's why Google hasbecome so dominant in today's digital world.
8. Google Owns More than 90 Percent of the WorldwideSearch Market
We all knew Google was dominant, but did you know it wasthis dominant? Google owns 90 percent of the world's searches,and they are so entrenched that it's hard to see it falling from this spot. Thenext few search engines on the list, Bing, Yahoo!, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo, haveno more than two percent market share each.
9. Search Traffic Has Grown by 2000 Percent in thePast 20 Years
The growth in the number of Google searches has beencaused by two factors. First, people are using the internet more now than theyever have before, meaning there are more queries in total. But Google has beensnatching up more and more of this new traffic over time,
11. 15 Percent of All Searches Are Unique
The most common searches people make are for the weatherand locations, but interestingly, a good portion of all searches, around 15 percent, are entirely unique. This isgood news for people who are looking to use search engines to boost traffic totheir website. It means people are constantly lookingfor new content to consume on the internet, and that they are using Google totry and find it.
12. Google Images Make Up More than 20 Percent of AllSearches Get chrome for windows.
Most of us tend to think of Google as a source ofinformation, which it primarily is. But it's also one of the top places peoplego when they are looking for visual content. In total, 20 percent of the 2 trillion searches Google processes eachyear are for images. This is useful information for people lookingto use Google to grow a business, as image searches represent an excitingopportunity to recruit new traffic.
Gmail Stats
Another reason why Google is such a major player inpeople's lives today is because of Gmail. Launched back in 2005, Gmail is oneof the world's most popular email clients. Here are some stats to demonstratejust how much influence this program has:
13. There Are More than 1.5 Billion Active Gmail Users
This makes it far and away the most popular email server in the world.To give you an idea, here is how the market breaks down:
14. Gmail Accounts for 27 percent ofAll Email Opens
Browser Statistics 2020
This is an interesting stat because it shows that Gmail isthe email client most people actively use. Many of us have an additional emailaddress, perhaps from work or on other servers such as Yahoo! or Hotmail. But 27 percent of all the emails sent around the world are openedon Gmail. Google's top competitor in the email space, Yahoo!,accounts for just 1 percent of all email opens. Now that's dominance.
15. The Average Gmail Account is Worth Over $3,500
This figure was calculated by taking into account all thetime we spend writing, reading, and sorting emails. The average amount of hourswas then multiplied by an average hourly wage, and it was found that we spendabout $3,500 worth of our time on email. This is why it's sodevastating if your email account is hacked or if you lose things you didn'tback up. It's not just a headache but also hours and hours of your life throwndown the drain.
16. Gmail AI Blocks More Than 100 Million Spam EmailsEvery Day
One of the reasons people tend to go with Google overother companies is not because it is the largest and most popular option butrather because it is generally viewed as secure.
Most of us experience this on a daily basis: Google sortsemails into 'Social,' 'Promotions,' and 'Inbox,' helping you see the importantstuff more easily. But it also does a wonderful job of identifying bad emailsthat could do you and/or your computer considerable harm if you opened them.
In total, Google's software blocks about 100 million of these emails aday. Don't see how this is possible? Go into the spam folder of youraccount and see how much is in there. And then multiply that by the 1.5 billionemail users in the Gmail system.
Google MapsStats
Another aspect of Google that has become integral to ourlives is Google Maps. We use it to find places we want to visit, both in ourhometowns and also when we travel. And many of us rely on it for turn-by-turnnavigation when we're trying to get to a place for the first time.
Google Maps is also incredibly useful because it updatesas you go, providing you with new routes that will get you to your destinationas fast as possible.
Here are a few stats about Google Maps to blow your mind:
17. Google Maps Is Made Up of 20 Petabytes of Data
You might be wondering what a petabyte is, and if you are,you're not alone. A petabyte is 1 quadrillion bytes, which, yes, is a ton ofdata.
Google Maps, which contains all the satellite imagerycollected from Google Earth, is made up of a ton of data, 21 petabytes to be exact. That's 21 milliongigabytes and 20,500 terabytes. Many modern phones come with 64 GB of storage,which means you would need 328, 125 of these phones to store all the dataGoogle uses for its Google Maps product.
18. Google Maps Accounts for 13 percent of all GoogleSearches
This one might not be as surprising as the stat aboutimages, considering how many of us use Google Maps as our go-to directory whenlooking up a location. However, 13 percent is a lot. This means there are roughly260 billion Google Maps searches each year (13 percent of 2 trillion). That's apretty insane number. And to think that not long ago people would automaticallygo to MapQuest for their mapping and navigation needs.
ChromeStats
Another household name in the Google family is Chrome, thecompany's signature web browser. Offered as an open-sourced program (meaningit's free), Chrome is many people's first choice when it comes time to pick abrowser. Here are some stats about how deeply it has penetrated the market.
19. Chrome Controls About 64 percent of the BrowserMarket
Although this is a considerably smaller market share ascompared to search, with 64 percent of the browser market, Google is still thedominant force. Here's a breakdown of the rest of the browser market to showyou how far ahead Chrome is as compared to its competitors:
20. Chrome Protects About 200 Million People EachMonth from Malicious Websites
Much like Gmail, Chrome is a top choice for people becausethey consider it to be secure. Chrome analyzes the host of the information youaccess and places a high premium on security. In fact, if a website does nothave SSL/TSL encryption, there's a chance it will not rank well on Google,leading to less traffic. In general, Chrome is quite successful in keepingpeople safe. According to Google, it protects 200 million people each month from bad websites.
21. There Are More Than 5 Billion Mobile Installs ofGoogle Chrome
This is interesting because Google Chrome is not thedefault browser on a lot of mobile devices. For example, Samsung phones usuallydirect you to use Samsung Internet and Apple phones are preloaded with Safari.
However, the Chrome app has been downloaded more than 5 billion times,demonstrating how much people prefer it.
One reason for this could be that Chrome integrates acrossdevices. It will save your history as well as your favorites and passwords,which provides for an overall better browsing experience.
YouTubeStats
No conversation about Google would be complete withoutmentioning YouTube, its sister company under the Alphabet umbrella. Purchasedby Google in 2006 for 1.65 billion (a sum many thought was too high), YouTubehas become a staple in our lives and is a big part of Alphabet's success. Hereare a few quick-hitting stats to remind you how large of an influence YouTubehas over our lives.
22. YouTube is the Second Largest Search Engine in theWorld
Right after, you guessed it, Google! This means that Alphabet controls the two largest search enginesin the world.
Now, there is a bit of debate behind this stat. Manypeople don't consider YouTube a search engine because one must load content upto YouTube for it to appear in search results.
This is different from how Google operates (it findscontent published on the web and then adds it to its catalog, meaning all youneed to do to show up in Google is upload content to the Internet), but even ifwe look at it this way, it's difficult to underestimate the power of YouTubewithin the search market.
Web Browser Usage
23. Over 1 Billion Videos are Viewed on YouTube EachDay
There's not too much to say about this one other than thatthis is a lot of videos. One billion videos per day translates to 41million per hour and about 694,000 per minute. It appears people are spending alot of time watching videos on YouTube when they probably should be working onsomething else. Oh well! It happens to the best of us.
24. 400 Hours Worth of YouTube Videos are UploadedEach Day
This one is quite mind-boggling purely because of theamount of time that goes into producing this content. Just think about the lasttime you tried to make a video of any length. Even if it was just a fewminutes, you probably spent several more hours shooting the footage and editingit. This just shows how much of our energy goes into video content and whyYouTube is so successful.
For context, consider that 400 hours per day is 2,800 hours per week, about11,000 hours per month, and about 134,000 hours a year. That's a ton of timespent making videos.
AndroidStats
The last part of Google's dominance we're going to coveris Android, the mobile operating system that is used on pretty much every phonein the world that's not made by Apple. In general, we consider Apple to beGoogle's main competitor in this area, but in reality, things aren't thatclose. Here are some stats to show you:
25. Android Controls Around 85 percent of the MobileOperating System Market
Browser Usage Worldwide
As you can see, despite competing mainly with Apple,Google's Android has a tremendous lead. However, together, Googleand Apple control about 99 percent of the mobile operating system market.Apple's share is still significant, and as long as they continue developingtheir own software for their popular devices, this will probably continue. Butthere's little chance they will ever be able to catch up to Android.
26. There Are More than 2 Billion Active Android UsersEach Month
This is important because the Android system is one of thekey ways Google collects the information it uses to sell ads. It monitors andrecords what you do with your phone and then sends this information to itspartners so that they can better target you as part of their audiences.
Of course, you can turn much of this off if you want tohave more privacy. But Google is betting that most of the 2 billion monthly Android users won't do this,something that will keep this segment of their business profitable for theyears to come.
27. More than 24,000 Devices Across 1,300 DifferentBrands Use Android
That Android is installed on so many different devices shows that Googleachieved what it was aiming for when developing the Android system. It wasintended to be an adaptable system that could be molded to the end developer'sneeds, and that's exactly what they've managed to do.
It's mainly for this reason that Android is so dominant inthis area. Its top competitor, Apple's iOS can only run on Apple products, andin the grand scheme of things, there are many more non-Apple products thanApple ones.
A GrowingEmpire
These 27 statistics should serve as a strong reminder ofGoogle's dominance in today's market. But we didn't even get to all areas ofGoogle. We didn't talk about Google Docs, which has over 500 million users, Google Photos, which has one billion users, or Google'shardware, such as the Pixel phone and the Google Home.
In fact, with Google's massive resources, it's difficultto find an area of the tech industry in which Google is not involved. And asthe world becomes more and more digital, we can only expect Google to expandits reach even further.
The only thing that could possibly stop it is privacyconcerns. There is a growing movement related to the amount of data companiessuch as Google collect on us that is hoping to take this power away from suchlarge companies. However, at the moment, most people trust Google and are willingto sacrifice some privacy for the convenience Google can provide by collectingthis data.
So, while things may change in the distant future, we canexpect Google to continue to be the dominant player in search, maps, email,browsing, mobile operating systems, and much more for many years to come.
