5 key stats: Slipping Google, trusting influencers, and undercover AI

Many notable data points emerged from this busy week, including Google's search usage, resounding global trust in influencer recommendations, and most Americans don't know they're using AI-enabled products (even though 99% recently have).

Here are five stats we found particularly interesting.

Key stat: For the first time since 2015, Google's search market share dropped below 90.0% in the last three months of 2024, according to Statcounter. Google hit 89.3% of search market share in October, 89.9% in November, and 89.7% in December

• ChatGPT creator OpenAI openly courted a share of the search market. In November, it provided broader access to its real-time web search feature, ChatGPT with search.
• Meanwhile, Google faces antitrust scrutiny as the Department of Justice recommended a federal court force the tech giant to sell off Chrome.

Key stat: Almost 8 in 10 customers worldwide (79%) trust influencer recommendations, and 61% said they made a purchase via a link shared by an influencer in the last six months, according to the 2024 "Rakuten Advertising Influencer Survey."

• US influencer marketing spend will hit $9.29 billion in 2025, a 14.2% increase from last year, according to our March 2024 forecast.
• We forecast YouTube will continue dominating influencer marketing spend in the US this year, with the video giant raking in just over $3 billion.

Key stat: 99% of Americans reported recently using at least one common AI-enabled product (including personal virtual assistants, navigation apps, weather forecasting apps, etc.), according to a new study from Gallup and Telescope. However, almost two-thirds (64%) didn't realize that they had used an AI-enabled product: 50% said they had not and 14% said they were not sure.

• The number of generative AI (genAI) users in the US will grow by 16.8% in 2025, making up 34.0% of the population, according to our June 2024 forecast.
• We forecast US smartphone users will have 18.33 apps installed this year, a decrease of almost 1% (0.9%) from 2024.

Key stat: Netflix was found to have the lowest percentages of ads per program, per a Sherwood assessment of the percent of time spent viewing ads on streaming services' ad-tiers versus the percent of time watching popular shows. Disney+ had the highest percentage, with 16.6% of time spent watching ads while streaming an episode of "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew."

• Netflix's US ad revenues will grow to $2.07 billion this year, an increase of 43.0%, per our November 2024 forecast.
• Over a third (35.9%) of the US population will be a Disney+ user this year, a 5.4% increase, according to our October 2024 forecast.

Key stat: The global smartphone market grew 4% YoY in 2024, after two consecutive years of annual decline, according to Counterpoint Research.

• Americans will spend an average of four hours and three minutes (4:03) on their phone every day in 2025, an increase of 1.4%, according to our June 2024 forecast.
• Almost 80% (78.6%) of the US population will be a smartphone user this year, per our March 2024 forecast.

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.