Google Chrome captures 42% of internet browser market as Microsoft slips

Microsoft is losing its market share in the browser race to Google Chrome. The company witnessed its highest decline in 11 years and now has a 23.3% user-base in the world.

Chrome is emerging as the most used browser with a 42.2% market share among roughly 1.75 billion Internet users. According to latest data from Digital Analytics Program (DAP), more than 40% of netizens surfed the web using Google Chrome, while only 23.3 % users were browsing via Microsoft (Internet Explorer and Edge combined).

A large proportion of the user-base that Microsoft lost, coincided with new users gained by Chrome. For February, Apple Safari with 21.4% share and Mozilla Firefox with 8.4% share stood at the third and fourth positions, respectively. Around the same time, Microsoft's share declined by 2.1%, which was the largest decline in a month for Microsoft in 11 years of recorded statistics, reported Computerworld using data derived from Net Applications.

Until last year, Microsoft's share in the browser space was over 57%, while Google Chrome was merely a quarter of that. Microsoft owns two internet browsers – Edge for the Windows 10 and Internet Explorer for earlier versions.

Microsoft had announced to replace the new browser, Edge with its iconic IE in April 2015, which served as the default browser on its Windows operating system for the last 20 years.