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Search engine market heads towards duopoly
6th March 2008
The internet search engine market is moving inexorably towards a duopoly and that process has been accelerated this week with the news that Ask (formerly Ask Jeeves) has abandoned plans to compete with Google and Yahoo and switch instead towards providing search advice for its growing band of female internet devotees.
A report in the Guardian says that
“Ask is laying off 40 people, amounting to 8% of its workforce. The California-based company will concentrate on providing answers to domestic questions about health, children’s homework, recipes and hobbies”
ComScore estimates that in January 2008, of the 10.5 billion internet searches made in the United States alone, the market share distribution was as follows:
Google 58.4%
Yahoo 22.9%
Microsoft 9.8%
AOL 4.6%
Ask 4.3%
If Microsoft succeeds in their takeover bid for Yahoo, we will have a classic case of duopoly.
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.