Google’s domination of research is questioned as slowly paid clicks

Wednesday, senior vice-president of the Eddy Cue services rang the ringtones after abandoning a bomb for the antitrust trial of Google: Google Research via Safari was abandoned in April for the first time.

Although his comments have sparked a frantic sale in Google Stock, this may not be the only reason why the company’s observers should be concerned about Google’s ability to keep total control in the research market.

A number little encouraged in Google’s last financial disclosure can be the most real sign that investors have reasons to worry.

After reporting the benefit of blockbuster Q1 last month, Google revealed that in a 10 Q file with the SEC, which paid the clicks for the quarter, increased by 2%, against a growth of 5% in the same quarter a year ago. It is the slowest growth rate since the company began to report metric.

The paid clicks are exactly what they look like: people click on advertisements on Google Search and other services such as Google Play and Gmail. Each click results in money in Google’s pocket.

Why are these paid clicks down, exactly, Google did not say.

“It is possible that the macro has played a role, or research with IA previews provided better results, requiring fewer” paid clicks “to access the conversion,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note published on Wednesday. “But above all, it’s a worrying KPI.”

Analysts said they thought that the time of decline, combined with cue comments and the rise of Chatgpt and Meta AI users, suggests that Google’s control in the research market can be lower than before.

“Combined, we believe that Google’s research share is closer to 65 to 70% compared to the 90% that we often hear,” they wrote.

Google refused to comment.

The Google pie slice

Google insists that it sees more research than ever.

Since the 2000s, the company has managed to collect large quantities of research by paying for Apple to make its default search engine on the Apple Safari web browser. Not more recently that in 2022, Google had paid Apple at least $ 20 billion – massive costs that point out how Google sees that Apple users turn to its search engine for all their requests.

He maintains that this partnership continues to stimulate research growth. CUE’s comments were provocative enough to encourage the research giant to publish a public declaration indicating that it continues to see “overall growth growth” in research, including an increase in the total of requests from Apple.

Among industry observers, industry observers are in doubt that the global pie increases – although the figures for the StatCounter research company suggest that Google’s control over global research has slightly dropped. The big question is whether the Google edge of this pie is narrowed compared to the rivals.

According to StatCounter, Google’s share of global research traffic fell to 89.71% in March 2025, against around 91% in March 2024 and around 93% in March 2023.

Meanwhile, competing research products are increasing. In April, Openai said that around 10% of the world uses Chatgpt, which would represent at least 800 million users. Meta also said that around 1 billion people use AI in its various products.

The research market is developing with AI because chatbots and generative tools widen the definition of research. Google could collect the awards here, although it also creates an opening for competitors as quickly as possible to stay ahead of the research giant.

Bernstein analysts have estimated that IA generating requests that are going through chatbots such as Chatgpt reach volumes almost 15% of the requests treated by Google and other traditional search engines.

Analysts are divided

Other analysts are divided on the quantity of threat of the research of Google threat.

For example, Apple’s long-standing analyst Ming-Chi Kuo went to X on Wednesday to explain why he thought it was a mistake to think that generating AI would not affect Google advertising activities.

He said that despite the “continuous growth in Google’s advertising activities”, the company has not yet had a lot of competition.

“Genai service providers have not launched advertising companies, so Google Ads remains the best choice for online advertisers,” Kuo wrote.

Kuo compared Google’s situation to that faced by Yahoo in the 2000s. The company’s advertising activity, launched in 1995, began to fall in 2008, despite new competition from the Google Adwords company in 2000.

Analysts of the investment bank Jefferies have a different point of view. On Wednesday, in a research note, analysts had a particular word to describe the sale of around $ 155 billion in Google’s actions by following the CUE comments: “Overblown”.

Although they have recognized that the “Apeavets” feature fueled by Google can be a front wind right now because it leads to “less research”, they have declared that Google “will be able to increase monetization” of its long -term AI summary function.

They also do not see a scenario where Apple moves away from Google and harms as much as investors might think.

“Although Safari is significant, it does not represent the entire research activity; iOS represents 18% of operating systems, and Safari holds 17% of the browser market share compared to the 66% chrome,” wrote analysts.

Do you have something to share? Contact this journalist by email to hlangley@businessinsider.com or signal at 628-228-1836. Use a personal email address and a non-work device; Here is our guide to share information safely.