Who Are Google's Main Competitors?

Google is a technology company whose mission is to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, it is now one of the most innovative companies in the modern technological age.

Since Google was broken out into Google and the parent company Alphabet, it has only continued to grow in sectors that include search engines, advertising, science, entertainment, and autonomous vehicles. Due to its cross-cutting products and services, Google's competitors vary.

Google's Competitors: Search

Google is nearly a monopoly in the online search arena, with more than 85.5% of the online search market and volume as of January 2023. This dominance leaves little room for competitors trying to outsmart and outperform the search engine, which generates its revenue through ads.

The second largest search engine, and the main competitor to Google, is Microsoft's Bing with 8.2%, followed by Yahoo! with 2.8%. Internet pioneer and media company AOL is also considered to be Google's competitor.

In other countries such as China, Google is banned from conducting business; there, the number one search engine is Baidu, which, as of March 2023, controls about 49% of the country's market share.

Google's Competitors: Entertainment

After acquiring YouTube back in 2006 for $1.65 billion, Google ramped up the entertainment and video content platform. In 2022, YouTube brought in $29.24 billion in advertising revenue.

Since the demand for online streaming platforms and services has grown in the past few years, YouTube's main competitors include:

• Netflix
• Hulu
• Vimeo
• Disney+
• Other content streaming platforms

But depending on how you classify it, the platform also competes for eyeballs with social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Google's Competitors: Autonomous Vehicles

Waymo, otherwise known as Google's autonomous vehicle project, has been one of the most mysterious yet buzzed-about subdivisions of Google. Empowered by the idea of creating a world that could be transformed by self-driving cars,

Waymo reiterated itself since 2009 to launch a safer vehicle that can reduce traffic accidents and reshape urban transportation. In this competitive and secretive space, Google's competitors include Uber's self-driving project, Zoox, Nissan, Tesla, Renault, and others.

Google's Competitors: Technology Industry At-Large

In the other revenues segment, Google competes with database pioneer and technology services giant Oracle, software company PTC, semiconductor giant Intel, independent software company CA Technologies, software company Compuware, American semiconductor company EMC, software company Red Hat, and network optimizer F5 Networks.

Other Google competitors in this segment include IP protocol device manufacturer Cisco Systems, multinational technology company Hewlett-Packard, computer security company Symantec, risk management and bond rating company Moody's Investor Services, American technology icon IBM, cloud computing and customer relationship company Salesforce, and Microsoft, among others.

The Bottom Line

Once its own entity, Google is now held by its parent company Alphabet. Google is among the largest and most commonly used search engines in the world. Although Search makes up the bulk of its business, the Alphabet subsidiary has its hand in other business segments, including entertainment, self-driving cars, and technology. If you're interested in investing in Google, you can do so by purchasing common or preferred shares of Alphabet or by buying mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that invest in the company.