Microsoft Bing has lost $5.5 billion
Bing is losing nearly $1 billion per quarter, and has lost $5.5 billion since it launched two years ago. That sucks.
It sucks for the team behind Bing, who have put a ton of effort into building a pretty good product. But it also sucks for consumers; as much as I like Google, they need stronger competition. The web has too many monopolies, and that’s not good.
Luckily, Microsoft isn’t giving up on Bing, and it sounds like they’ve realized trying to beat Google at their own game is a losing battle. Microsoft needs to explore big ideas if they want Bing to succeed. And, as a bit of a silver lining, Bing’s current lack of market share might allow them to do just that:
Microsoft has one key advantage over its rival: It has nothing to lose by experimenting. On the flip side, slight tweaks to Google’s search algorithm send shivers down the spines of companies that rely on high rankings.
