Mock Bing all you want — it keeps gaining users and making billions

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In their latest quarterly financial disclosure, Microsoft made headlines as it surpassed another company to become the second firm globally with a market capitalization of $4 trillion – a significant milestone. Moreover, the impressive $75 billion in annual income generated by Azure was noteworthy as well.

Scrolling through the financial report reveals that Bing is steadily increasing its presence and generating substantial income. In fact, Microsoft recorded an additional $1.6 billion in revenue from search and news advertisements over the past year.

Without accounting for traffic and acquisition expenses, the search and news advertising earnings increased by 21% compared to the previous year.

Microsoft CVP Jordi Ribas took to LinkedIn to discuss the growth of the company’s search engine.

For the fourth year in a row, Bing and Edge have gained market share. I’m about to disclose the most recent statistics from Comscore (USA) and StatCounter (Global), which compare various search engines since we launched Bing Chat and Copilot in 2023,” Ribas stated.

According to the CVP, Bing’s destiny underwent a significant change upon the release of Microsoft’s Bing Chat, subsequently known as Copilot.

Does Bing make money?

Since its launch, Bing has often been the subject of humor. For instance, the animated series “Family Guy” poked fun at the Bing Maps car, while numerous people have jested about Peter Parker from “The Amazing Spider-Man” using Bing.

Of course, Microsoft operates as a business. If a service such as Bing underperformed consistently over time, it’s reasonable to expect that Microsoft might decide to discontinue it.

Regardless of being widely recognized as a meme, Bing generates substantial income. As stated by Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President (CVP) and Chief Financial Officer Phil Ockenden back in February 2023, even minor increases in search market share could equate to approximately $2 billion in revenue.

Increasing user numbers, higher audience interaction, and elevated ad rates are key drivers of revenue growth. Earlier, Amy pointed out that the total addressable market for digital advertising exceeds half a trillion dollars, with around 40% dedicated to search advertising. Ockenden stated that every one percentage point increase in the search advertising market represents a potential $2 billion in revenue for our advertising business.

If this trend persists, Microsoft stands to earn billions due to the relatively small increase in market share for Bing as indicated by statistics from StatCounter. In 2023, Bing accounted for 2.97% of the global search market share, and it has since grown to 3.96%.

Bing has seen a growth in its success on desktop computers. Its global desktop market share increased from 8.58% to 11.8%, as reported by StatCounter, over the years 2023 to 2025.

It seems that the majority of these advancements are due to Google experiencing a decrease in global desktop market share by approximately 5 percentage points. In fact, when considering search engine market share across all devices worldwide, Google saw a drop from 92.38% in 2023 to 89.71% in 2025.

Is Google getting worse?

Over time, I’ve noticed that Bing Search has consistently evolved and refined itself, particularly with the incorporation of AI technology, which seems to have significantly enhanced the caliber of search results. However, going head-to-head against a colossus like Google necessitates more than just enhancing our own offerings to capture a significant portion of the market share.

Changing people’s preference for search engines can be quite challenging. In fact, entire research projects have been dedicated to understanding the factors that might persuade individuals to use Bing instead of other search engines.

Microsoft’s promotion strategies for Bing have been met with criticism, yet it might reap its largest benefits if its competitor experiences a decline.

Multiple elements have influenced Google’s market standing since 2023, such as antitrust lawsuits compelling Android to provide options, and initial AI integration resulting in less-than-optimal search outcomes, which drew criticism from users.

In the previous year, Google advised incorporating glue into pizza sauce for improved stickiness. Notably, Google had once proposed consuming rocks as well.

Google’s search results are also full of AI-generated content and Reddit posts that lack context.

Earlier this year, I delved deeper into the reasons why some users are shifting from Google to Bing – quite an intriguing exploration!

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2025-08-01 17:34