Google's global search market share increased for the second consecutive month in June, likely driven by AI integration, analysts at Bank of America highlighted in a recent note.
The company's global search share saw a month-over-month increase of 25 basis points, rising to 91.1%.
Despite a year-over-year decline of 159 basis points, this uptick suggests positive momentum, potentially driven by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into Google's search engine.
Overall, while platforms like ChatGPT and others are making strides, their combined daily web traffic remains less than 0.3% of Google's, underscoring the dominance of Google in the search engine market.
"Google gained share both globally and in the US in June, suggesting AI overviews could be aiding usage," Bank of America analysts wrote.
The bank maintains its ‘Buy’ rating on Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), with a price objective of $200, suggesting confidence in Google's ability to leverage AI for continued growth and increased monetization.
The enhanced user experience offered by AI integration is believed to be a significant factor in this growth, as Google continues to expand its AI capabilities across its ecosystem.
While Google's desktop market share slightly declined, dropping 10 basis points to 80.4%, its mobile search share saw a more robust increase of 35 basis points, reaching 95.2%. In contrast, Microsoft's Bing experienced a modest increase in market share, up 2 basis points globally to 3.7%, but remains significantly behind Google.
Bank of America remains optimistic about Google's prospects. "We remain positive on growing Gemini integration across the Google ecosystem and think broader rollout of AI overviews will likely help drive higher usage," the analysts noted.
The report also highlighted potential risks, including the launch of a new web search product by OpenAI and the upcoming Ad-tech trial and DOJ Search case ruling.