| Microsoft Takes on Google and Yahoo for Publishers Dollar |
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So Microsoft is getting closer to take onGoogle and Yahoo for your publishing space using adcenter. How you wonder? It starts with Microsoft consolidating its email (outlook, etc), instant messenging (MSN Messenger mostly), online security and online search into its Windows Live site.
This is no small feature considering in 2005 Microsoft's Internet Unit generated $1.4 billion, while Googles did $6 billion and Yahoo did $4.6 billion. According to Forrester the internet advertising market will grow to $26 billion by 2009 from its current $11 billion (2005) so Microsofts strategic goal is to be aggressive now and capitlize on this new frontier. "I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft could double (its online advertising revenue) in three to five years," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at independent research firm Directions on Microsoft based in Kirkland, Washington. Analysts warn Microsoft that search engine relevency of MSN Search (soon to be live.com) trails behind Google and Yahoo. As for adcenter and relevancy of those ads Microsoft plans to back that up with their Messenger (205 million users) and 230 million email accounts (hotmail,etc) to help bring the proper ads up. Of course having the fact that there are only a fraction of the users on MSN as on Google or Yahoo causes one big hurdle for delivering ads. Less Customers! Google has 48 percent of the U.S. search market in January with Yahoo at 22 percent and MSN at 11 percent, this according to Nielsen//Net Ratings. "The online advertising market is growing at such a rapid pace and we want to participate in some of that," Microsoft's Bradford said. "This isn't a winner-take-all proposition." What does this mean for you Publishers? You will have not only Adsense, but YPN (Yahoo Publishing Networking) and Microsoft AdCenter. Buyer beware! |
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