Microsoft 'reeling' because of Windows Live

The new Windows Live brand of Internet services, launched in 2005, has caused too much "harm" to the world's largest software giant, pushing Microsoft into a far behind compared to its rival Google.

On Thursday last week, the software giant announced its full-year 2006 revenue forecast with the Internet business suite falling from 11% to about 3 to 8%. Microsoft also acknowledged that its market share in the search industry has plummeted.

Compared to a year earlier, the search volume on Windows Live Search dropped by nearly 10%, while Google increased by more than 22%. Currently, Google holds the top position in the search field with 50.8% market share, followed by Yahoo with 23.6% and the bottom of the table is Microsoft with a loss rate of 8.4%.

Analysts say that, although it is too early to make a prediction about 'Windows Live' death, it is clear that in the first year of launch, this online suite has not made a good impression. .

Michael Cherry, a leading analyst for Windows, said: ' There is too much concern about Microsoft's unsuccessful goals or backward development in the race against Google for the consumer software market. advertising support. However, this is a long-term problem, so I cannot guess anything but rely on quarterly figures . '

Although Microsoft does not provide specific specifications of Live brand services, it seems that the new service set is stagnating.

Live.com's search interface

Gartner analyst David Smith said: ' Microsoft ' s new Live - branded service suite has messed up everything and hurt it. Most likely it has pushed the software giant into the current state. They have created a new brand but have yet to create their own identity . '

Mr. Smith also said it would be too early to make 'final judgments' about Microsoft's business strategy, but this is the time for them to explain it clearly.

Microsoft has spent billions of dollars to promote the Windows Live brand. They have separated online, free Internet services (such as email and direct messages) from MSN and created their own free online search engine.

In May last year, Microsoft launched AdCenter lucrative search program and constantly tried to gain market share with Google champion. Meanwhile, although it was slower than three months, Yahoo was still able to deploy a new generation search platform.

Everyone knows advertising programs are only really successful when people 'look around' to promote products. But how many people think of the www.live.com address whenever they need to search the Internet? Even many web 2.0 users don't know 'in the world' there is a Microsoft-owned search engine!

Adam Sohn, chairman of Microsoft's online services group, acknowledged that the growth in search and advertising services was not as good as his company wanted.

He said: ' We are comfortable in the transition, but will still focus on the challenges posed to the development of the search field. There are many opportunities to improve and we need to make more efforts to accelerate development and increase market share . '

The giant has yet to push himself

However, Microsoft still has a large number of users of Windows Live Mail, Live Messenger services and a large number of MSN readers. Compared to a year earlier, the number of users increased by 40%, the number of page views increased by at least 30%. Advertising revenue also increased by 20%.

Of course, not Microsoft wants to promote the service business beyond software development. In addition to services, the group has not forgotten its potential, more and more software, especially consumer software, is available online and in many cases also supports advertising.

Evidence that Microsoft is considering creating versions of the latest Works software in the form of either online offering, or advertising support or a combination of both.

Mr. Cherry complained about Windows Live services not working on competitors' browsers. He cited: ' Microsoft Windows and Office Live services cannot operate independently. They can only run on Microsoft's own browser and must be the latest version. Therefore, I wondered if they understood what a market is. '

But according to Mr. Sohn, users can still use Live Search and most Windows Live services except for some types such as Virtual Earth and some MSN services on any browser. Regarding those troubles, Mr. Sohn said the engineers are looking for solutions.

Despite these obstacles, Internet businesses still believe that Microsoft will not easily give up in the battle for market share on the Internet. Mr. Sohn said: ' This is a long-term gamble. Challenges will be great, but it is worth giving up the resolve and to be successful, we are willing to devote every possible resource . '

Do Duong