In France, as in many countries, the Google search engine dominates the competition with more than 90% market share. The many other search engines, French or otherwise, are left to fight over the meager remainder. Given this premise, it’s difficult to imagine using SEO/SEA tools effectively on search engines other than Google. This raises many questions: Can you operate your website outside of Google? If so, how? How can you attract a premium audience that drives growth and visibility? Is it possible to reach a premium audience in SEO/SEA without using Google or Facebook? In this article, discover the influence of Google and why it might be beneficial to position yourself on other search engines.
Search Engine Landscape in 2019
As
mentioned earlier, Google and its parent company Alphabet rule the
search engine world. But the proliferation of search engines since the
2000s offers a real opportunity for advertisers seeking to diversify
their traffic sources and reach a different audience than Google's.
Global Search Engine Market Share in 2019
In 2019, Google remains number one globally with a 92.37% market share. Bing takes second place, followed by Yahoo, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo. In China, Baidu is number one, while in Russia, Yandex handles 60% of user queries.
Market Share in France in 2019
In France, Google dominates with a virtual monopoly. According to figures from Webrankinfo, its main competitors (and alternatives) share barely 6% of the market—less on mobile.
Why Position Yourself on Search Engines Other than Google?
Reaching a New Global Audience for Advertisers
Advertisers
with international ambitions must adapt to the habits of the countries
they want to enter. Relying solely on Google—a U.S. search engine that
is sometimes politically contested—may be a mistake. Using other search
engines is a way to access new premium audiences. For example, with SEA
in China via Baidu, or in Russia via Yandex.
• Baidu commands 66.89% of search volume in China, with new competitors emerging like Sogou, Shenma, and Haosou.
• Yandex controls almost 50% of search queries in Russia; Google is the second search engine there.
How to Reach a New Audience in France?
In France, there is clearly a search engine problem. Qwant
may appear as an alternative, but Google is still overwhelmingly
dominant nationally. With 52.8 million internet users in 2018 (per Médiamétrie),
the remaining 6% still represents 3.168 million users—valuable for
advertisers. This figure is expected to grow in coming years as more
users become aware of ethical concerns and alternative options to
Google.
Avoid Being Dependent on a Single Actor like Google
Being
present on competing search engines is beneficial for organic
visibility. From an SEO perspective, it's crucial that the advertiser’s
site is indexed and visible to a broader audience.
This also ensures
advertisers aren’t dependent on a single platform for both organic and
paid search results. They will need to use Bing Ads, Baidu, Yandex, and
Qwant to display sponsored links.
The Emergence of Qwant in France and Other Search Engines
With
only 0.65% market share in France, Qwant is still underused. However,
it's forming partnerships—such as with Bing Ads for managing ad
campaigns, and with Microsoft’s Edge browser.
Qwant also partnered with Brave, becoming one of the four default search engines.
Furthermore,
there's political support for Qwant in France, with it being used on
the workstations of French government employees.
This suggests Qwant could become France’s equivalent of Baidu or Yandex—so it shouldn’t be ignored in the coming years.
Other emerging French search engines include:
• Lilo – a socially-conscious search engine
• Exalead – focused on advanced search
• Xooloo – aimed at children
Search Engines on the Web: A Brief Retrospective
We won’t cover all search engines here, but you can consult this Wikipedia article for more.
Here are key milestones:
• 1990: Archie, created by McGill students, becomes the first search engine (for FTP sites).
• 1994: Yahoo Search is launched, offering human-curated site
listings. Web Crawler is also launched—the first to index full pages.
• 1995: Excite (later AOL Search), and Altavista with natural language search.
• 1996: Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin working on BackRub, using backlinks—this later becomes Google.
• Hotbot launches, pioneering paid inclusion (ads), though less effective than PPC models.
• 1997: Yandex is launched by Arkady Volozh and Ilya Segalovich in Russia.
• 1998: MSN Search, Google, and Overture (Goto.com) are launched.
• 2000: Baidu is founded in China, later becoming dominant there.
• 2003: Yahoo acquires Inktomi and Overture for $1.865 billion.
• 2007: Microsoft ends partnership with Yahoo Search, launching Live Search.
• 2008: DuckDuckGo launches with a privacy-first approach.
• 2009: Bing is officially launched by Microsoft. Microsoft and
Yahoo sign a 10-year deal to use Bing as the backend for Yahoo Search. Ecosia,
a German meta-search engine, also launches—donating ad revenue to
tree-planting in countries like Burkina Faso, Peru, Tanzania, and
Madagascar.
• 2013: Qwant, a French search engine, launches—committed to not tracking users or selling personal data.
• 2014: Yahoo signs a deal with Mozilla Firefox to be the default U.S. search engine.
• 2019: Google still dominates globally, but Baidu and Yandex are
strong regional players. Bing and Yahoo Searchsurvive through
partnerships.
Search Engine Comparison for Users
A benchmark of 12 key search engines was created in 2019—click here to download it.
Some were selected for their originality and added value to users. Ignoring them would be a mistake for advertisers.
Many
alternatives to GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon) exist for web
search. These offer different results, better privacy, or support social
causes—like Ecosia and Lilo.
Search Engines vs. Google: What to Remember
In 2019, Google’s dominance in digital is undeniable, with staggering ad revenue ($136 billion USD).
However,
national players like Yandex and Baidu are challenging this hegemony.
Microsoft also supports white-labeled engines using Bing’s tech,
strengthening its position as a global outsider.
It is possible to reach a premium audience through SEA without Google, but Google will likely remain essential for years.
Advertisers
must diversify their traffic sources, because— as shown in this
article—new search engines bring new formats (social, shopping, ethical,
privacy-focused) and different results.
Users are becoming
more aware of privacy, result relevance, and the ethics of monetizing
search data without redistributing the wealth.
Search engines like Ecosia and Lilo are emerging to bring meaning and balance to a digital world that’s gone a bit off course.
