Most SEO reporting quietly assumes Google. Worldwide, that assumption is close enough: Google had about 91% of search referrals in October 2026. But international teams do not sell to “worldwide”. In several markets a Google-only report misses a third or more of search traffic, and in a few Google is not the leader at all. For teams that monitor search visibility across countries, knowing which engine matters where comes before any ranking report.
This guide uses StatCounter’s October 2026 data to show where Google is not number one, what the local leaders do differently, and how to plan tracking around them.
How the numbers are measured
StatCounter does not count searches. In its own words: “Our search engine stats are based on what we call search engine referrals, not the number of searches performed.” It counts page views referred by a search engine across more than a million websites that carry its tracker. So the figures show where search clicks come from, on sites that use StatCounter, which skews towards some kinds of sites and markets.
National trackers measure differently and can give very different answers. In Korea, for example, a local tracker puts Naver well above StatCounter’s figure. Compare like with like, and read small markets with care: some country series swing by ten points or more from one month to the next.
Where Google is not the clear leader
| Market | Leader | Main rival | Google a year earlier | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | 91.0% | Bing 4.8% | 90.0% | |
| United States | 85.5% | Bing 9.8% | 85.1% | |
| South Korea | 48.5% | Naver 42.3% | 52.1% | |
| Russia | Yandex | 28.4% | Yandex 70.2% | 26.9% |
| China | Baidu | 7.0% | Baidu 49.1% | 1.7% |
| Japan | 59.6% | Bing 32.3% | 77.9% | |
| Belarus | 58.2% | Yandex 38.8% | 65.0% | |
| Kazakhstan | 68.4% | Yandex 29.5% | 64.0% | |
| Turkey | 74.8% | Yandex 23.7% | 57.0% | |
| Czech Republic | 80.1% | Seznam 13.1% | 82.4% |
StatCounter, all devices, October 2026 against October 2025. The China and Turkey series are volatile from month to month.
South Korea: Naver leads on phones
Across all devices Google is narrowly ahead, but on mobile the order flips: Naver had 56.5% of mobile search referrals in October 2026 against Google’s 38.6%. A desktop-led view of Korea understates Naver badly.
Naver’s results page is not a list of ten links. It blends “Smart Blocks” of content from its own blog, cafe and Q&A services, and since 2025 it has added AI features: AI Briefing, which summarises answers with links to sources, and in June 2026 an AI Tab for conversational search, which passed 10 million users by July, according to Naver. Ranking on Naver means being present in the formats Naver favours, not only on your own site.
Russia and its neighbours: Yandex
Yandex had about 70% of search referrals in Russia in October 2026, and Yandex itself reported a 67.5% share of the Russian search market in Q2 2025, measured by its own analytics service. It also says its AI answer feature, Neuro, already answers about a quarter of user queries. Google stopped serving ads in Russia in March 2022, though its search remains available.
Yandex’s reach extends beyond Russia. It had 38.8% in Belarus, 29.5% in Kazakhstan, 23.7% in Turkey and 22.0% in Uzbekistan in October 2026. Its search API documents a region parameter, lr, that sets which region results prioritise, which is a useful reminder that Yandex results are regional by design.
China: Baidu, with noisy data
Baidu leads in China, with 49.1% in October 2026, but the StatCounter series for China jumps around from month to month, so treat single numbers with caution. Bing is strong on desktop. Google redirected Google.cn to its Hong Kong service in 2010, and its search is widely reported to be blocked on the mainland, so its share there reflects a small, unusual audience.
Baidu has moved fast on AI answers. In its Q2 2025 results it said that “By July, 64% of mobile search result pages contained AI-generated content”, up from 35% in April.
Czech Republic: Seznam holds on
Seznam is one of the few local engines in Europe with real share: 13.1% in October 2026, up from 10.6% a year earlier, with Google at about 80%. In 2026 it widened access to Seznam Asistent, its own AI assistant, which now appears at the top of results for some queries.
Japan: the desktop surprise
Japan looks like a Google market, and on phones it is. On desktop, things changed quickly. Japan’s 2026 telecommunications white paper, using StatCounter data for March 2026, put Google at 47.5% and Bing at 46.9% on PCs, and suggested that Microsoft Edge setting Bing as its default contributed. Across all devices, Bing reached 32.3% in October 2026, up from 10.9% a year earlier.
Yahoo! Japan, with 6.6%, is a special case: under an arrangement announced in 2010, it uses Google’s search engine. We found no announcement of a change.
And AI assistants?
AI assistants are growing but have not replaced search. Similarweb estimated 9.5 billion monthly visits to generative AI sites in May 2026, up 70% on a year earlier, and reported that search still reaches roughly five times as many monthly users as AI chatbots. These are panel estimates, but the direction is consistent: AI answers are being added on top of search, including inside Google, Naver, Yandex, Baidu and Seznam themselves. Our guide to Google AI Mode and rank tracking covers measuring that layer.
What it means for international SEO
- Pick engines per market. Use market data, not habit. Korea needs Naver, Russia and several neighbours need Yandex, and Czech campaigns should not ignore Seznam.
- Split by device. Korea on mobile and Japan on desktop look very different from the all-device average.
- Localise properly. Local engines reward local language and formats. Make sure each market gets the right page, and use hreflang to map language versions correctly.
- Measure from inside the market. Rankings depend on location as well as engine. Our guide to measuring accurate keyword rankings covers pinning location, language and device, and our guide to localized Google results shows how much they differ by place.
- Re-check every year. Japan’s desktop shift and Naver’s mobile lead both moved by several points in twelve months.
Residential proxies help with the last mile: seeing public results pages as a local user in each market sees them. Keep collection light, respect each engine’s terms and rate limits, and use official tools such as Search Console, Naver Search Advisor and Yandex Webmaster for your own sites first.
The bottom line
Google’s 91% worldwide share hides markets where it is second, a close first, or strong only on one kind of device. Naver leads Korean mobile search, Yandex leads Russia and holds a large share across its neighbours, Baidu leads China, Seznam keeps a real slice of Czech search, and Bing has caught up with Google on Japanese desktops. Before you report rankings for a market, check which engines its users actually search with.
Sources and references
- StatCounter Global Stats, search engine market share by country (October 2026): gs.statcounter.com
- StatCounter, FAQ on methodology: gs.statcounter.com
- Naver, Smart Blocks (11 November 2022): navercorp.com
- Naver, AI Briefing launch (24 March 2025): navercorp.com
- The Korea Herald, Naver AI Tab users (July 2026): heraldcorp.com
- Yandex, Q2 2025 results press release: yastatic.net
- Yandex Search API, request parameters: yandex.cloud
- Google Ads, update on ads in Russia: support.google.com
- Baidu, Q2 2025 results (SEC filing, 20 August 2025): sec.gov
- Google, A new approach to China: an update (22 March 2010): googleblog.blogspot.com
- Lupa.cz, Seznam expands Seznam Asistent (25 May 2026): lupa.cz
- Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Information and Communications White Paper 2026: soumu.go.jp
- Yahoo Japan, adoption of Google’s search engine (27 July 2010): lycorp.co.jp
- Similarweb, Is AI replacing search? (4 August 2026): similarweb.com