The most basic of basics in online customer acquisition is this:
"When your target users search online, your website appears right away."
In short, you need search engine optimization.

Search engines in Japan can be broadly divided into
"Google," "Yahoo!," "Bing," and "others."
So how do their shares break down? We'll look for trends in the data and consider what you should do about your online customer acquisition going forward.

This time we pulled data from a website called StatCounter (http://gs.statcounter.com/). You can view all kinds of data there — not just search engine share, but also browser share, OS share, data on devices used for web browsing and more.
Take a look if you're interested.

The graph above shows how search engine share in Japan changed from 2014 to 2016.
A quick glance at the graph reveals the following:

* Just two companies — "1st: Google" and "2nd: Yahoo!" — account for over 90% of the share
* From Q2 2015 onward their fortunes diverge, with Google trending upward and Yahoo! trending downward
* "3rd: Bing" has been inching up, if only slightly, since Q1 2016

That's about the size of it.

I'd long been curious about how Bing's share was doing

The reason I decided to gather this data was that I wondered, "How has Bing's share been trending?"
The fact that Google and Yahoo! form a dominant top two is nothing new, so it's hardly surprising.
What's more, since 2011 Yahoo! has been using Google's search technology. In other words, Yahoo!'s search results are essentially the same as Google's.

Bing, on the other hand, is a search service provided by Microsoft, and it used to go by the name MSN. Because it uses different search technology from Google and Yahoo!, its results are different too.

So why was I curious about how its share was trending? Because Bing is the default setting in Windows 10.
What do I mean by that? Windows PCs have often shipped with it as the default for some time, but since Windows 10 — for better or worse — changing the setting from Bing to another search engine has become a bit more difficult.

Since we also provide PC support services, we see all sorts of computers, and our impression is that many Windows 10 users simply keep the default settings.

So I had a hypothesis: "Hasn't its share risen since 2015, when Windows 10 was released?"

With that in mind, what's your impression of this graph?
"It's hard to say, isn't it?"
…
……Let's change the conditions a little.

Graph 2 shows PC data only.
You can see that Bing's share is larger than in Graph 1. And sure enough, its share rises from Q1 2016 onward. This may be because people bought new PCs at the end of 2015 (during the Christmas and bonus shopping season) — running Windows 10, of course.

That said, its share drops slightly over the second half of 2016, which may mean that users dissatisfied with Bing changed their settings.
Even so, Bing will most likely remain the default on PCs people buy from now on, so it may be worth keeping a close eye on.

If your target is women or light users, you should also consider optimizing for Bing

Although the numbers aren't large, a certain segment of people do use Bing. And as I mentioned earlier, the key point is that it's the default setting on PCs. In other words, if you're in an industry targeting users who aren't good with PC settings or aren't particularly interested in them — light users or women, for example — it's a good idea to check once where your website ranks on Bing.

While we're praising Bing: Bing is used in some surprising places

This has somehow turned into an article promoting Bing (laughs). In fact, Bing is used as the default in a surprising place:
Bing powers the iPhone's "Siri" and "Spotlight" searches.

Now let's take a look at smartphone model share in Japan.

The iPhone is strong! It's over 70%.
I don't know how much Siri, a standard iPhone feature, is actually used — though I've never once seen anyone seriously asking their iPhone, "Hey Siri!" So my guess is that it isn't used all that much.
Still, we can't rule out that usage will grow in the future. So I do think it's worth keeping in the back of your mind.

Was Yahoo! hit by the rise in iPhone share?

This is a bit of an aside, but looking at Graphs 1 and 2, didn't you wonder, "Why did Yahoo! lose share so quickly?" I certainly did.
It's long been said that Google attracts people who know their way around computers, while Yahoo! attracts light users.

So where did the light users go? Did they all suddenly awaken as heavy users?

Just as I was wondering that, Graph 3 gave me a hypothesis.
Yahoo! users began dropping sharply a little before Q1 2016, when the iPhone's share started to grow.
Graph 4 below shows search engine share on mobile devices, and it makes the picture crystal clear.

From Q4 2015 there's a wide gap with Google.
Why would the iPhone have anything to do with Yahoo!? Because the default search engine in Safari, the iPhone's standard browser, is Google.
Search share is influenced and reshaped by device trends like these.
It's entirely possible that future shifts could affect your own online customer acquisition. It certainly can't hurt to keep this in the back of your mind.

That said, today's article was a bit on the geeky side (^^;)