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June 9, 2009
Initial comScore Data Confirms Bing's First Week Success
Last week, StatCounter was the first to release data showing Bing doing well in its first week. Now, comScore data seems to corroborate that sentiment, albeit not the extreme success in StatCounter's numbers.
comScore compared data from Microsoft's search sites the week before Bing's launch to the first 5 days it was live. Check it out:
Of course, it remains to be seen if this is the beginning of a nice momentum or if it's all out of curiosity.
"These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," said Mike Hurt, comScore senior vice president. "So far it appears that the lifts in searcher penetration and engagement have held relatively steady throughout the five-day period. The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users. It appears it is off to a good start."
What do you think is Bing's fate? Let us know in the comments.
Posted by Nathania Johnson on June 9, 2009 2:01 PM
Comments
Marc June 9, 2009 4:41 PM
Now Google's Schmidt is talking about Bing. Schmidt shouldn't comment at all--it just gives Bing more publicity. That, in turn, will most immediately hurt Yahoo. See Why would Google ding Bing? for more.
Marco June 10, 2009 12:44 AM
Is this real momentum, or forced momentum via IE updates which include Bing?
Don't get me wrong, I'm not being negative about Bing, just ever so slightly sceptical. Either way, I hope Bing becomes a worthy contender (doubtful). It will do the industry good.
John Scott Cothill June 10, 2009 4:55 AM
IE updates aren't forcing Bing on people. I think IE 6 is the only version that might be automatically redirected to Bing, and IE6 is not major at this point. The momentum now is because of Microsoft's initial marketing and PR efforts. We'll have to see whether it's a blip or not, but I don't see it as being an artificial blip (artificial meaning automatic IE updates).
Also, what do you define as a "worthy contender"? At this point, "worthy" doesn't mean challenging Google. It means challenging Yahoo. Domus Blog
Marco June 10, 2009 11:37 AM
Bing might steal some market from google at this initial stage. But in the long term it will lose all, and even more if MS does not add something really innovative.
Servizi Fotografici June 10, 2009 6:00 PM
"Microsoft Sites Search Performance"??? What does that mean? Is that search across all Microsoft properties regardless if they use Bing or not?
Simon June 26, 2009 4:24 PM
Thus far, from a classic marketing point of view, Microsoft has been playing its cards very well. It has launched a strong advertising campaign to spread the message about Bing and it has begun a strong public relations effort to strengthen the authenticity of that message. Additionally, it is paying close attention to what the market and blogosphere is saying. (I can see that in the metrics of our own blog, Domus Marketing Thoughts, where there are significant hits coming from Microsoft when we've posted on the topic.) As we wait and see how this plays out, it will also be interesting to watch how Microsoft continues to manage their efforts.
I do strategic consulting work for Domus, Inc., a Philadelphia based full-service marketing communications agency.