"Ask Google" is the slogan of the search giant's marketing campaign, which expresses the extent of Google's control and its popularity among users. If we want to put marketing and advertising aside, nothing speaks better than numbers. In the period between June 2019 and June 2020, Google's market share was 91.75%, and Bing engine came in second place with a small share of 2.75%. What is the benefit of having a search engine that is less popular than Google? Is Microsoft burning millions of dollars on a pointless project?
Search for Bing: What Does a Search Engine Do in Microsoft's Empire ?
A question comes to your mind and you don't know the answer to it, is Bing the search engine you usually use to find the answers you are looking for? not nessacary. Does this mean you are not using ping? No, you sometimes use it without realizing it.
X-Box
If you like to play on Xbox, you use the ping feature to search on your device because it is the default option on these devices since 2014 . Microsoft has announced the launch of a separate Bing application on some Xbox devices, with which users can search the Internet and discover popular games, news, videos and those that are recommended to watch.
The number of active Xbox players reached nearly 90 million per month in April 2020, down from less than 40 million at the start of 2016.
Cortana
An AI-powered personal assistant designed to help Windows 10 users of over a billion users control their computers and search the Internet. You can use Cortana by voice or written commands. If you want to search on the Internet, Cortana will use the Bing search engine and the Microsoft Edge browser.
An explanatory video for the use of Corotana:
Among other Microsoft products that use Bing by default:
- Office programs.
- Outlook.
- Explorer Browser and Edge.
- Skype.
The power of the default: a demon you know is better than a demon you don't know
You bought a new computer running Windows, and as soon as the device was unlocked, you received a message on your mobile phone from one of your customers asking you to perform a necessary task. You open your new device and search for Google Chrome to perform the required task, to find that Internet Explorer is the default browser, and you must download Google Chrome first to be able to perform the required task. You are on a weekend and want to enjoy your leisure time, so you decide to use the default browser and put off downloading Chrome until a later time.
This tendency not to change the default choice is called hypothetical choice bias or status quo bias and means that people usually prefer not to take any action or change decisions they made previously. Researchers have found 4 reasons behind this bias:
- Changing the default takes mental effort, and this makes people tend to be inactive.
- Inactivity prevents people from trying to change the status quo.
- People’s fear of bearing losses is twice as strong than their desire for gains, meaning that sticking to the default option stems from their desire to avoid any losses resulting from the change.
- Having the perception that the default options are good choices will make people stick to them.
Microsoft is counting on the strength of the influence of the default choice bias in marketing its products. Windows system, for example, uses Internet Explorer or Edge as its default browser and directs users to the ping engine. How many users succumb to the default prejudice and rely on Microsoft software on their computers? And how many of them go the extra mile to change these default options?
The numbers don't lie: Microsoft's billions of dollars in advertising
Bing is not a failed product for Microsoft, as it ranks fourth in the United States in terms of digital advertising revenue, and Microsoft generates billions of advertising revenue annually, but these profits are not attributed to Bing only because Microsoft has established several external partnerships, including, for example, the Version Media Group. From 2016 to 2020, it generated the following revenues:
- $ 5.43 billion in 2016
- $ 6.22 billion in 2017
- $ 7.01 billion in 2018
- $ 7.63 billion in 2019
- $ 7.74 billion in 2020
Advertising revenue exceeds what Microsoft generates from LinkedIn or Surface computers and other computing equipment the company produces. The importance of the available data cannot be overlooked thanks to Bing’s 25% market share of personal computers in the United States, which can be analyzed with the aim of improving the performance of some products such as Cortana.
Advertising is an important part of the marketing policy of any company, so you can hire the best freelancers in the field of advertising on a freelance site , reach your target audience and increase your sales.
Bing is an essential stop on Microsoft's journey of success
Microsoft is associated in consumers' minds with products such as the Windows system and the Office suite of programs. As for Bing, not many pay attention to it despite the progress it has made over the past years and that it has become one of the most important assets that Microsoft owns.
In January 2021, the total number of visits to Bing’s site reached 1.034 billion on mobile phones and PCs, but the issue is not only a matter of numbers, as the data that the company gets from the search engine is the real treasure.
If we look at Cortana in Windows 10, which millions of people interact with; We will find that these interactions provide Microsoft with the data it needs to know the types of questions that users ask and their formulas to provide the best answer and this is called big data . As for the office programs, there are some features that depend on Bing, such as Cortana and the Delve feature, which show the user the information he needs, such as e-mails and appointments, in a timely fashion by learning the actions the user takes and how to do it.
Therefore, the lack of popularity of a particular product or service among users does not necessarily mean that the product did not achieve the desired goals, as major technology companies such as Microsoft do not spend huge money on failed projects. The struggle is now a struggle over data, and companies are trying their best to get as much of it as possible.
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