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Google remains the dominant player in the highly competitive Internet search engine market in Australia, the latest data from the Roy Morgan Internet Monitor shows.

In the January-March 2006 Quarter, 9.19 million (67%) Australians who had accessed the Internet before said Google was the search engine they mainly used, compared with 2.127 million Australians (16%) who used Yahoo!’s search engine during the same period. Four and a half years ago Yahoo! dominated with almost three times Google’s market share — 33% in the April-June 2001 Quarter compared with Google’s 12%.

Over the last four and a half years the number of Internet users who named Google as their main search engine increased from 1.229 million (12%) in the April-June 2001 Quarter to 9.19 million (67%) in the January-March 2006 Quarter — an increase of 7.961 million Internet users. Google’s pre-eminent position in the Australian market is reinforced by the fact that the total of its four nearest rivals — Yahoo!, ninemsn, BigPond (powered by Sensis), and OPTUSnet — equalled just over half of Google’s total in the January-March 2006 Quarter.

 

Gary Morgan says:

 

“Google continues to be the clearly dominant figure in the highly competitive world of Internet search engines. It appears it will be the most used Australian search engine for a long time yet.

“The recent partnership formed between Yahoo! and Channel 7, resulting in Yahoo!7, has given Australia’s second-most used search engine the opportunity to re-invent itself and to launch an assault back towards the top — next Quarter’s results will show if this works!”

Google took over from Yahoo! as market leader in July-September 2002 when 3.556 million named Google compared with 3.413 million who named Yahoo! as their main search engine and the gap has been widening ever since. In the January-March 2004 Quarter the number of Internet users citing Google as their main search engine exceeded that of its then four major rivals combined (6.619 million compared with a combined total of 6.312 million).

Unlike Google, the trend for Yahoo! over the last five years has been far from positive. Despite the occasional gain in numbers, the proportion of Australian Internet users and who name Yahoo! as their main search engine has declined steadily from its peak of 3.297 million (35%) in the October-December 2000 Quarter to just 2.127 million (16%) in the January-March 2006 Quarter.

Ninemsn’s market share has increased during the last four years; growing from 1.295 million (13%) in the April-June 2001 Quarter, peaking in October-December 2003 at 2.128 million (18%) before steadily losing ground to settle at 1.948 million (14%) in the January-March 2006 Quarter.

BigPond, owned by Telstra, and whose search site is powered by Sensis, was relatively stable; enjoying an increase from 748,000 (7%) in the April-June 2001 Quarter to 1.268 million (9%) in the January-December 2006 Quarter — an increase of 520,000.

OPTUSnet, a relatively new online search provider, was the fifth most primarily used search engine — 436,000 (3%) Australians in the January-March 2006 Quarter considered it the search engine they mainly used. It will be interesting to see how this figure fluctuates in the coming months as more and more people become aware of OPTUSnet.

Respondents were asked to name their main search engine; respondents could give more than one response.

	Oct-Dec00		Jan-Mar01		Apr-Jun01		Jul-Sep01		Oct-Dec01		Jan-Mar02		Apr-Jun02		Jul-Sep02		Oct-Dec02		Jan-Mar03
	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s
Google	*	*	*	*	12	1,229	16	1,581	18	1,931	24	2,576	30	3,289	32	3,556	36	4,133	41	4,773
Yahoo!	35	3,297	33	3,183	33	3,322	31	3,118	32	3,400	32	3,399	30	3,319	30	3,413	29	3,300	29	3,367
ninemsn (MSN)	*	*	*	*	13	1,295	16	1,570	17	1,736	15	1,623	18	1,963	18	1,993	18	2,014	17	1,987
BigPond (powered by Sensis)	*	*	*	*	7	748	9	872	9	915	10	1,020	9	988	9	968	8	952	8	910
OPTUSnet	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Australians ever accessed the Internet		9,556		9,558		9,975		10,096		10,498		10,625		11,140		11,278		11,480		11,563
	Apr-Jun03		Jul-Sep03		Oct-Dec03		Jan-Mar04		Apr-Jun04		Jul-Sep04		Oct-Dec04		Jan-Mar05		Apr-Jun05		Jul-Sep05
	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s	%	000s
Google	45	5,346	48	5,716	50	6,092	54	6,619	59	7,172	60	7,578	61	7,693	62	7,852	66	8,431	65	8,516
Yahoo!	29	3,473	27	3,257	23	2,822	23	2,804	23	2,851	21	2,629	22	2,747	22	2,741	19	2,488	17	2,246
ninemsn (MSN)	18	2,121	18	2,120	18	2,128	16	1,962	15	1,882	15	1,941	16	1,979	15	1,861	15	1,956	15	1,938
BigPond (powered by Sensis)	8	954	7	891	8	933	8	1,017	8	948	8	954	8	1,058	8	968	8	981	9	1,128
OPTUSnet	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
Australians ever accessed the Internet		11,879		11,990		12,135		12,242		12,245		12,576		12,527		12,682		12,868		13,063

	Oct-Dec05		Jan-Mar06
	%	000s	%	000s
Google	69	9,122	67	9,190
Yahoo!	17	2,304	16	2,127
ninemsn (MSN)	14	1,820	14	1,948
BigPond (powered by Sensis)	9	1,133	9	1,268
OPTUSnet	*	*	3	436
Australians ever accessed the Internet		13,237		13,715

Base: Australian population aged 14+ who have ever accessed the Internet.

This data was derived from a Roy Morgan International Survey of 91,704 Australians aged 14 and over, conducted between October 2000 and March 2006.

For further information:

Gary Morgan	Office (03) 9224 5213	Mobile 0411 129 094	Home (03) 9419 3242
Michele Levine	Office (03) 9224 5215	Mobile 0411 129 093	Home (03) 9817 3066

The Morgan Poll is conducted by the ONLY Australian and New Zealand member of
the Gallup International Association.

No Other public opinion poll taken in Australia has this qualification.

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