Microsoft’s Bing search engine hit the milestone of 100 million daily active users just weeks after the software maker launched its AI-powered Bing Chat feature. Bing has grown steadily over the past few years, but it looks like the new Bing Chat feature is helping Microsoft expand its usage to people who have never touched Bing before.
Google has more than a billion daily active users, putting Microsoft’s 100 million milestone in perspective as it seeks to gain market share.
“We are thrilled to share that after several years of steady progress, and with a small boost of one million new Bing Preview users, we have surpassed 100 million daily active Bing users,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft. Consumer Marketing Manager, in a blog post.
Microsoft didn’t reveal Bing’s daily active user count before it was added to Bing Chat, but the preview certainly put Microsoft’s search engine in the spotlight recently. Microsoft now finds that about a third of Bing Chat testers are new to Bing. “Around a third of Daily Insight users use Chat daily,” Mehdi says. “We’re seeing an average of about three chats per session with over 45 million total chats since preview started.”
Bing Chat isn’t the only reason for the increased use of Microsoft’s search engine. Microsoft Edge has also helped Bing usage, as Microsoft is aggressively pushing its search engine defaults with Edge updates, Windows Updatesand even invites you to block people from downloading google chrome. “We expect new features, such as Bing search and creation in the Edge sidebar, to drive growth,” Mehdi says.
It has now been a month since the Bing chatbot was launched. Microsoft recently added a switch for different personality tones designed to counter the wild outbursts many have seen with the Bing AI chatbot. Microsoft also added some restrictions after some rude responses were spotted, and the company has been gradually easing those restrictions over the past week.
Microsoft’s latest Bing Chat usage statistics come weeks after the company announced its plans to boost revenue in a digital advertising market worth around $500 billion. “For every point of market share gain in the Search Network advertising market, that’s a $2 billion revenue opportunity for our advertising business,” said Philippe Ockenden, CVP of Microsoft Finance, in a call with analysts last month.
Microsoft has already grown its ad business to $18 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, up from $10 billion in the prior fiscal year. Much of that is thanks to Bing, but Microsoft still has a long way to go to close in on the more than $200 billion Google generated from advertising in 2022.
But for Microsoft, it’s an opportunity to increase usage and take market share from Google. “We are fully aware that we remain a small, low-single-digit player,” says Mehdi. “That said, it feels good to be at the ball!” It’s probably the same dance that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella referred to last month. in an interview with The edge. “Google is the 800-pound search gorilla,” Nadella said. “I want people to know we made them dance.”