New Research Reveals Who is Using DuckDuckGo and Why (2024)

A new report published this week by SimilarWeb reveals what type of users are opting for the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo, and why they’re using that search engine over alternatives.

According to the top 5 sites frequented by DuckDuckGo users, SimilarWeb has been able to determine they have an acute interest in tech and tech news sites. This is in contrast to people who use Bing, a more popular search engine, who tend to frequent sites you’d expect the average web user to visit.

Sites that DuckDuckGo users show the strongest affinity for include:

• Whitehatsec.com
• Github.com
• NYtimes.com
• 4chan.org
• YCombinator.com

All of those sites, save for New York Times, serve a specific niche. Compare that list to the top 5 sites Bing users show a strong interest in:

• MSN.com
• Amazon.com
• Reddit.com
• Google.com
• Baidu.com

DuckDuckGo users also like to engage with their search engine of choice for longer periods of time — averaging 9.38 minutes spent on DuckDuckGo vs. Bing.

Despite its growth over the past year, DuckDuckGo faces a considerable challenge when it comes to getting found by new users. Data shows the people using DuckDuckGo are those who already know about the search engine, with 93% of its traffic coming from direct visits. Only 1.5% of its traffic comes from organic search.

Roy Hinkis of SimilarWeb concludes by saying the loyal users of DuckDuckGo are those who love tech, and they use they use DuckDuckGo as an alternative because they’re concerned about having their privacy protected while they search online.

Hinkis and I share a similar opinion with respect to the growth of DuckDuckGo, being that it will need to launch a full fledged digital strategy dedicated to awareness in order to stay competitive. DuckDuckGo needs to get its brand in front of its demographic and let them know a private alternative to Google exists.

That being said, traffic to DuckDuckGo is up 22% year-over-year, ending December 2015 with a total of 108.2 million visits.

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