Many notable data points emerged from this busy week, including Google's search usage, resounding global trust in influencer recommendations, and most Americans don't know they're using AI-enabled products (even though 99% recently have).

Here are five stats we found particularly interesting.

Key stat: For the first time since 2015, Google's search market share dropped below 90.0% in the last three months of 2024, according to Statcounter. Google hit 89.3% of search market share in October, 89.9% in November, and 89.7% in December

• ChatGPT creator OpenAI openly courted a share of the search market. In November, it provided broader access to its real-time web search feature, ChatGPT with search.
• Meanwhile, Google faces antitrust scrutiny as the Department of Justice recommended a federal court force the tech giant to sell off Chrome.

Key stat: Almost 8 in 10 customers worldwide (79%) trust influencer recommendations, and 61% said they made a purchase via a link shared by an influencer in the last six months, according to the 2024 "Rakuten Advertising Influencer Survey."

• US influencer marketing spend will hit $9.29 billion in 2025, a 14.2% increase from last year, according to our March 2024 forecast.
• We forecast YouTube will continue dominating influencer marketing spend in the US this year, with the video giant raking in just over $3 billion.

Key stat: 99% of Americans reported recently using at least one common AI-enabled product (including personal virtual assistants, navigation apps, weather forecasting apps, etc.), according to a new study from Gallup and Telescope. However, almost two-thirds (64%) didn't realize that they had used an AI-enabled product: 50% said they had not and 14% said they were not sure.

• The number of generative AI (genAI) users in the US will grow by 16.8% in 2025, making up 34.0% of the population, according to our June 2024 forecast.
• We forecast US smartphone users will have 18.33 apps installed this year, a decrease of almost 1% (0.9%) from 2024.

Key stat: Netflix was found to have the lowest percentages of ads per program, per a Sherwood assessment of the percent of time spent viewing ads on streaming services' ad-tiers versus the percent of time watching popular shows. Disney+ had the highest percentage, with 16.6% of time spent watching ads while streaming an episode of "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew."

• Netflix's US ad revenues will grow to $2.07 billion this year, an increase of 43.0%, per our November 2024 forecast.
• Over a third (35.9%) of the US population will be a Disney+ user this year, a 5.4% increase, according to our October 2024 forecast.

Key stat: The global smartphone market grew 4% YoY in 2024, after two consecutive years of annual decline, according to Counterpoint Research.

• Americans will spend an average of four hours and three minutes (4:03) on their phone every day in 2025, an increase of 1.4%, according to our June 2024 forecast.
• Almost 80% (78.6%) of the US population will be a smartphone user this year, per our March 2024 forecast.

This was originally featured in the EMARKETER Daily newsletter. For more marketing insights, statistics, and trends, subscribe here.