9 ms·

Microsoft's strategy back in 2006 was to become #2 in a search duopoly, with a strong focus on the most lucrative forms of search. They've largely executed on

by jdp23 15y ago

Microsoft's strategy back in 2006 was to become #2 in a search duopoly, with a strong focus on the most lucrative forms of search. They've largely executed on it; spending Yahoo into the ground was a key part of it. And they've also increased their search quality, and with Bing's UX differentiated themselves from Google. Kudos to them. In the process, though, they've starved the rest of their investments online. Remember when MSN Messenger was #1 in a lot of the world, and so was Hotmail? Remember when Spaces had initial momentum in the photo-sharing/blogging world and they were about to introduce Circles? Remember QnA, which had a shot at combining with algorithmic search to duplicate Naver's approach in South Korea? In order to devote resources to search, MS underinvested in the product in all of these areas. For the last several years Google has been far less resource-constrained than MS so #3 cuts against MS. > Is it work $7.5B more to have a breakeven search business? You do the math. What's the ROI from investing $7.5B and getting 0 return? Apparently though that's not how they're making decisions.

kenjackson 15y ago
with a strong focus on the most lucrative forms of search Their revenue hasn't shown they've achieved this. Their search revenue seems about inline with what you'd expect for their marketshare. Not disproportionately higher. Remember when MSN Messenger was #1 in a lot of the world, and so was Hotmail? Remember when Spaces had initial momentum in the photo-sharing/blogging world and they were about to introduce Circles? Remember QnA, which had a shot at combining with algorithmic search to duplicate Naver's approach in South Korea? Win Live Messenger ist still #1 in a lot of the world. I Think its #1 worldwide in fact. Hotmail is still top 3 probably (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail?). But honestly I don't really remember anyone using the other ones. I recall Spaces, but no one was really using it. I donm't recall QnA at all. I think what MS tried to do was focus. And they decided that search was their focus area in the online space. I don't think it was an unreasonable call. And frankly, I think if I were in charge, I'd do the same thing. And if I were running MS today, I think I'd continue to invest in search -- especially mobile.
- jdp23 15y ago
  Well, starting with a position of strength everywhere but search, they've been losing a billion dollars or more a year. They just had to spend $8.5B buying Skype in a market that Messenger should have owned. Microsoft doesn't even have a social network offering. Google's lead in search has continued to grow. I said at the time that focusing primarily on search was the wrong call. It sure seems to me like results since then have proven me right.

by jdp23 15y ago

kenjackson 15y ago

with a strong focus on the most lucrative forms of search Their revenue hasn't shown they've achieved this. Their search revenue seems about inline with what you'd expect for their marketshare. Not disproportionately higher. Remember when MSN Messenger was #1 in a lot of the world, and so was Hotmail? Remember when Spaces had initial momentum in the photo-sharing/blogging world and they were about to introduce Circles? Remember QnA, which had a shot at combining with algorithmic search to duplicate Naver's approach in South Korea? Win Live Messenger ist still #1 in a lot of the world. I Think its #1 worldwide in fact. Hotmail is still top 3 probably (Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail?). But honestly I don't really remember anyone using the other ones. I recall Spaces, but no one was really using it. I donm't recall QnA at all. I think what MS tried to do was focus. And they decided that search was their focus area in the online space. I don't think it was an unreasonable call. And frankly, I think if I were in charge, I'd do the same thing. And if I were running MS today, I think I'd continue to invest in search -- especially mobile.

jdp23 15y ago
Well, starting with a position of strength everywhere but search, they've been losing a billion dollars or more a year. They just had to spend $8.5B buying Skype in a market that Messenger should have owned. Microsoft doesn't even have a social network offering. Google's lead in search has continued to grow. I said at the time that focusing primarily on search was the wrong call. It sure seems to me like results since then have proven me right.