Meta (META.US) aims to take on Google (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) with an AI-powered search engine for its platforms
1min read Meta(META.US) is targeting Google's (GOOG.US, GOOGL.US) market share.Meta is reportedly developing an AI-powered search engine for its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms, according to a person familiar with the strategy. Meta declined to comment.Meta's chatbot currently relies on Google and Microsoft's Bing search engines to answer questions about current events.Meta's AI search engine could eat into Google's search market share, according to Justin Post, an analyst at Bank of America Global Research."In light of users spending a lot of time on Meta's apps... some traffic could shift away from Google search if users increasingly use Meta's AI for information," Post wrote in a research note.However, Meta is not trying to challenge Google as a general search engine like Bing or AI startup Perplexity. But integrating AI search into social media could lead to further fragmentation of the market, where Google has more than 90% of the search engine market.Post estimates that if Meta users make three queries per week to the company's AI search engine, that would be equivalent to about 30 billion queries per year, compared with about 200 billion queries per year that Google handles.Meta announced last Friday that its AI chatbot would use Reuters' news content to answer users' questions in real-time. The Justice Department had said it might try to break up Google after a judge ruled that Google had an illegal monopoly in general search services and general text ads.Meta shares rose 2.62% to close at $593.28 on Tuesday.
