Is Google losing market share to artificial intelligence chatbots like ChatGPT? The question has haunted the search-engine company for the last two years, but it ultimately might not matter for Alphabet stock.
At least, that's the conclusion from Evercore analysts who surveyed more 1,300 people in the U.S. They found 8% of the respondents chose ChatGPT as their primary search engine, up from 1% in a previous survey in June.
That's a dramatic rise. The indication is that the share gains are coming at the expense of Alphabet's Google, which was the primary search engine for 74% of users, a decline from 80% in the previous survey.
"These results were mixed for Google," wrote Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney in a research note.
Though he noted that Google's share loss to ChatGPT is a negative, one relief was that the move was less pronounced in searches related to shopping and travel -- two of the most valuable areas for advertisers.
There's a couple more reasons not to hit the panic button yet. While ChatGPT looked to be gaining market share as a primary search engine option, it doesn't look to be affecting usage trends for Google, according to Evercore. That could be explained by the trend that users of generative AI look to be making more searches overall.
"While our survey suggests rising Search competition, it also suggests that Google's Gen AI innovations are creating an overall better Search Engine for users, which should translate into consistently robust Search Revenue for Google," wrote Mahaney.
Mahaney maintained an Outperform rating and $225 price target on Alphabet stock.
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