Google is finally making its presence felt in the AI race, but it still has a lot of ground to cover.
The generative AI landscape is witnessing a dramatic surge in competition, with Google’s Gemini making significant strides in user traffic, SimilarWeb traffic shows. However, OpenAI’s ChatGPT continues to hold a commanding lead in overall market share.
New data reveals that Gemini (Gemini.google.com) saw a staggering 28.90% month-over-month increase in worldwide traffic from April to May 2025. This growth significantly outpaces that of its main rival, ChatGPT, which grew by a respectable 6.82% in the same period. Other players in the field, such as Perplexity.ai, also demonstrated strong growth at 12.14%, while platforms like Deepseek.com (-9.15%) and Grok.com (-8.92%) saw a decline in traffic.
The State of the Race: Growth vs. Dominance
Despite Gemini’s explosive growth, the broader market context underscores the scale of the challenge ahead. As of June 2025, ChatGPT remains the undisputed titan of the GenAI space, commanding an overwhelming 78.9% of the traffic share among the leading platforms.
Google’s Gemini, even with its recent gains, holds a distant second place with 8.0% of the market. The rest of the field, including DeepSeek (5.3%), Grok (2.1%), Perplexity (1.7%), and Claude (1.4%), makes up the remaining share, illustrating a market heavily consolidated at the top.
This tale of two metrics—rapid growth versus entrenched dominance—paints a clear picture: while users are increasingly flocking to Google’s offering, the habit and scale of ChatGPT have built a formidable moat.
The Strategic Crossroads at Google
The data points to more than just a horse race; it signals deep strategic shifts with profound implications for Google’s multi-billion-dollar empire. As Google celebrates Gemini’s momentum, it must simultaneously navigate the existential threats this new technology poses to its legacy businesses.
Cannibalization and the Innovator’s Dilemma
The more significant challenge lies in the potential cannibalization of Google’s primary revenue driver: Search advertising. Gemini’s integration into the main search experience via “AI Overviews”—which provide direct, summarized answers to user queries at the top of the results page—is a double-edged sword. While it may provide a better user experience, it also means users have less reason to click on the traditional “blue links,” many of which are paid advertisements.
This is the classic “innovator’s dilemma.” Google must disrupt its own highly profitable business model before a competitor does. If Gemini becomes the primary way users find information, it could fundamentally undermine the ad-click economy that Alphabet was built on. Reports from legal proceedings have revealed that even some Google executives view this cannibalization as “inevitable” and are urgently exploring how to integrate ads into the new AI-driven experience without alienating users.
While Google’s leadership argues that AI will expand the types of questions users ask, leading to new opportunities, the transition is fraught with risk. The company must re-engineer its business model in real-time, all while facing pressure from nimble, AI-native startups that don’t have a legacy business to protect.
As the generative AI race heats up, Google’s impressive growth with Gemini is a clear sign of its technical prowess and market power. However, the ultimate measure of success will be its ability to navigate the strategic tightrope of innovation and self-disruption. For now, ChatGPT’s crown remains firmly in place, but the battle for the future of information is just beginning.