Will Microsoft Keep Backing Bing?
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Everyone's focused on Microsoft's reported earnings for the fourth financial quarter of 2009, which came in well beneath Wall Street's estimates and suggest that the company isn't out of the proverbial woods yet with regard to the recession. Granted, there's some light to be seen through the trees -- the release of Windows 7 and the prospect of a massive tech refresh starting later in 2009 -- but for right now Microsoft is still mired in the undergrowth, struggling to rip its way past some fairly large branches. For those who still need a look at the numbers, Microsoft saw a 17 percent decline in year-over-year revenue, with earnings of $13.10 billion for the quarter. That's more than $1 billion below estimates, and enough to send Microsoft's stock down just over 9 percent by early afternoon on July 24. Ouch. As one bright spot amid the financial Armageddon, though, Microsoft executives took a moment during the July 23 earnings call to pump up Bing, the new search engine that offers users not only traditional "page of hyperlinks" search, but also tabs that allow access to categories such as "Shopping" and "Images." Bill Koefoed, general manager of Microsoft's Investor Relations, said during the company's July 23 earnings call that Bing had "positive early momentum." Apparently the search engine saw growth of over 30 and 50 percent, respectively, in its Shopping and Travel divisions. However, Microsoft's online services unit recorded a $732 million loss for the period, a significant drop from the $485 million loss during the same quarter in 2008. At the same time, the company devoted a not-insubstantial portion of the earnings call to discussing just how its own internal cost-cutting measures prevented its bottom line from potentially looking a whole lot worse. From the macro perspective, too, things appear promising but not quite rosy. Bing came strong out of the gate -- doubtlessly buoyed by Microsoft's massive ad campaign, reportedly with a budget between $80 million and $100 million -- but its percentage of the U.S. search engine market remains small. According to a ComScore report released on July 15, Bing occupied 8.4 percent of the market, versus 65 percent for Google. At the same time, another report by research company SearchIgnite found that Microsoft's share of the U.S. paid search advertising market remained the same in Bing's first few weeks of release as it had before the search engine launched, at 6 percent. By contrast, Yahoo and Google owned 17 and 77 percent of that market, respectively. A lot of people like Bing -- Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said during the Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans that the site was displaying "mojo" -- but there might be cause for concern here. If the numbers don't increase, and if Microsoft's losses in its online division continue, will the company let Bing languish, increasingly unsupported? Based on the amount of internal attention devoted to Bing, the answer would seem to be "no." But once the luster of the new wears off, it could potentially be a different story for Redmond. Only time will tell. |
Comments (6)
BING, as far as I am concerned, isn't anything special -- especially if you are attempting to search a/all Microsoft site(s). GOOGLE finds information better on Microsoft's sites!
I'm not alone in this opinion. Several other IT consultants/specialists I know that are looking for resources from Microsoft sites through BING find that this search engine is just as poor at finding Microsoft's own information (support or otherwise) as any previous Microsoft search engine, and that GOOGLE will find what you're looking for from the Microsoft sites without giving you a headache!
How good can Microsoft's BING be when a rival's search engine can find information on a Microsoft site that it; either using the same search terms, or even more refined terms? Not very, if you ask me!
Posted by Rick | July 24, 2009 5:23 PM
People are creatures of habit and I don't think Ballmer and his Bing team know exactly how to reach out to people in a way that would make it a smooth transition in switching the users of Google and Yahoo to Bing. Bing is a superior search engine without a doubt but habit is hard to break and that's where the problem is. I know how to make it happen, but I prefer Ballmer to ask for my help personally and I guarentee that his fire for Bing will burn higher than ever. It's so simple, he won't believe "he" didn't think of it sooner. Nicholas, you have my permission to give him my email address.
Posted by Dan | July 25, 2009 3:47 AM
Lets see if this post brings out some of the old regulars (both loved and...not so)
I think Bing is an example of Microsoft having to accept that it can't be better than everyone else at everything (what they are better at is up for debate)
In my opinion Microsoft seem to throw money at idea's galore in the hope of "striking it rich"
Lets consider Zune. Did that make an impact on the Ipod? Does everyone want the Zune fashion statement around their waste? I don't think so, although to be a fair, it did receive quite a bit of publicity when it failed over the new year.
So we look at Bing, Ive said it before, rightly or wrongly Google is a household name. Ask your parents/in-laws what Bing is and I would put money on you being met with a blank look. That wouldn't be so bad if Bing was seen to offer a cutting edge feature or something which made it stand out from the croud in such a way it was only a matter of time for it to overtake Google. My experiences of Bing have not found anything bad, but they've not found anything more than Google, the MS faithful like to state that Linux has a long way to go to make a dent in Microsoft's market share, yet it appears to me that Bing has an even greater task.(IMO)
Microsoft needs to concentrate on a smaller catalog (IMO) instead of jumping on board any new concept, it should be trying to make its traditional products even better. When you look at the impact Firefox has had over IE I believe there is something wrong somewhere.
What puzzles me was that whilst they are "chopping away the fat" they chose to do so with their Flightsim brand (unless I'm wrong) In my experience of talking with Microsoft users that package was actually loved and had a cult following. If, as I'm led to believe it was a quality product, Microsoft should be using the lessons learnt from it and employing them into their current catalog. (IMO)
Quote "Bing came strong out of the gate -- doubtlessly buoyed by Microsoft's massive ad campaign, reportedly with a budget between $80 million and $100 million -- but its percentage of the U.S. search engine market remains small."
Could it also be that IE6 was alleged to change users default to Bing without their permission?
Regards.
Goblin
"I refute the claim I am one of the Linux unwashed. I take a shower once a year whether I need one or not"
Posted by Goblin | July 25, 2009 10:00 AM
Bing is the same old Microsoft search engine, same market share, same everything - just this year's new branding and $100m promotion.
Posted by David Gerard | July 26, 2009 8:32 AM
What "mojo"? It's the same old Microsoft search engine, same results, same market share - just it's had its annual re-promotion, a rebranding and $100m spent on it. The actual substance is identical.
Posted by David Gerard | July 26, 2009 8:56 AM
Bing, aka "Windows Live" formerly MSN etc. Standard play from the MS playbook is to rename a product that is not going over well, to reuse at least 98% of the code, and to make minor changes, mostly UI or wallpaper changes. Bing is no exception, nothing to get excited about people, just move on (back to Google).
MS also does the renaming with Windows Seven from Vista, mostly its just the same thing. Except for the price, which is like a whole new OS.
But suppose now for a minute, that Windows Seven will not sell like hotcakes? Not possible, right? But here is a play or suggestion right out of the MS playbook. Hire Leslie Nielson to make commercials with Billy Gates, remove IE and rename Windows Seven to Windows 7 and a 1/3, the Naked OS. Its got to work, its the same thing, different name.
Posted by Chips Malroy | July 28, 2009 8:06 PM