But where does this $2.5bn get spent on ? Will data centers and employees cost this much.. Also since this is a loss, the actual costs must be much higher than this...
Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
41–48 of 48 posts
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
If Microsoft can't bring it traffic... who can? Facebook. Even though IE is still in the lead (for now), everyone "googles" and "facebooks" their way through the internet. No one "microsofts" anything.
There are quite a few people who aren't so tech-savvy that unknowingly use Bing because it's the default in IE. I'm guessing they're the majority of that 27%.
In my experience if you set a search engine other than google to the "not so tech-savvy" they will use it to search for "google" and then proceed from there.
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft doesn't have the content or services that are more compelling than its competitors to generate traffic. Google has search, gmail, google docs, you tube, etc etc. Facebook has your friends. Microsoft has a bunch of second place also rans like bing, hotmail, msn, etc.
I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure hotmail is bigger than gmail. And Office365 might be similar in size to g:docs.
I have a hotmail account; had to create it because you need it for accessing some Microsoft-owned websites -- never used it as my email and I can't remember the last time I used it to log-into anything.
I have a Google Apps account -- using it every single hour when online.
GMail is definitely bigger than Hotmail. Maybe not when it comes to total number of accounts, but it's definitely bigger when it comes to the number of active users, which count more IMHO.
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#44A division that is bleeding cash doesn't mean that it should be sold off or closed down.
Sometimes, products that don't make money or even make losses are part of a bigger strategy.
Look at Google, no one knows if YouTube is still profitable but it has positioned Google as the leader in online video and will no doubt help their social efforts.
Innovative things have happened from online video - online lectures, talks, short films and creation of internet stars wouldn't have happened faster without the massive reach of YouTube.
Bing is positioning itself in a way that when Google does something stupid (looks highly improbable right now) then Microsoft can be at the right place at the right time.
One of the more important things is a user's trust. Yahoo! & Microsoft are very notorious at abruptly closing down their services and so it becomes difficult to trust their products even if they're a notch ahead in terms of features than their close competitors. Another sale would hurt that trust, no doubt.
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#45Bing is another example of the Microsoft philosophy: compete in everything; excel in nothing.
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#46This is clearly a controversial article. But I think it's fair to say Microsoft is not focused. Who can say what Microsoft's focus is these days? Without vision, the company and its followers will get lost. Microsoft may be able to stumble upon success by flailing about, but without vision Microsoft won't be able to tell the difference between success and distraction when it's staring them in the face.
To make an extreme example, is a great real estate deal a success to Microsoft? Microsoft might need to buy real estate from time to time and benefit from doing it well. And yes, some companies make lots of money in real estate. Should Microsoft be opening up a real estate investment arm? Probably not. But given Microsoft's focus these days, who knows.
The question isn't just what is a distraction to Microsoft, but what is Microsoft's focus? Samsung's focus is manufacturing. Apple's focus is product design. Google's focus is data. These are all big, successful companies with laser focus even if it appears from the outside they are working on the same things. Who are you Microsoft and where are you going?
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#47The Times misses Microsoft's strategy. You don't need to be better than Google, just be good enough so that when Google screws up, they can swoop in. Microsoft losing $2.6B is like me dropping $5 on a crapy sandwich. Microsoft has successfully executed this strategy several times.
"The Times misses Microsoft's strategy" - the article doesn't represent the opinion of the NY Times - it's an opinion piece. There's a disclaimer on this version of it: http://blogs.reuters.com/columns/2011/07/22/microsoft-ought-... (Pointing this out because I used to work for a newspaper, and it was always frustrating seeing people mistake opinion pieces for the official editorial line of the paper)
Thanks for pointing that out.
I find it more difficult to discern these things in the online format. With the regular newspaper, there are plenty of visual cues that make it clear about what is the author's opinion vs. the papers. Not so with the online edition.
Re: Bing Becomes a Distraction for Microsoft
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
But is there any evidence that either of those strategies are working?
definitely working better than giving up search and handing over keys of the biggest money making opportunity on the internet to the competitior.
By what metric is it working better?
Google seems more profitable than ever, has the lead in search engine usage by a far, far margin, and Microsoft's online division continues to lose billions of dollars.