Microsoft is on a mission. With efforts like Live Mesh, Live Cashback, Azure, Powerset acquisition etc., Microsoft is trying to fend off the competiton and the growing mind share and market share of Google. But while Microsoft still works out its US strategy, is it ignoring the non – US markets ? Especially India ?
I personally think so. Just look at the pace at which Google has been innovating in the Indian market. They launched the ability to search in Indic languages, Google SMS Channels, Indic Transliteration API (which I think is super awesome by the way), Voice and SMS based search and a tonne of new features in Orkut. Even Yahoo, inspite of its recent troubles, has made a few attempts at innovating in the Indian market with services like OurCity, Glue, SpotM.
On the other hand, there’re hardly any such efforts – services being launched by Microsoft India. A few business partnerships here and there, but nothing compared to the likes of Google India. And that seems to be showing in the traffic to their Internet properties.
Google sites had 20 million Indian visitors in May, compared to 12 million Indian visitors to Microsoft sites. Even more startling is the percentage increase. Traffic to Google sites from India increased 35% from May 2007 to May 2008 while the same increased by only 11% for Microsoft sites.
Agreed that the US market is important. But if there’s one lesson that can be learnt from the populartiy of various social networks across different geographies, its that you cant ignore the non-US traffic. The combined traffic from non US sectors is reaching substantial numbers, which can no longer be ignored or taken lightly. Although broadband adoption in India has been painfully slow, the Internet users in India has been growing steadily and in the coming years, it will become a force to reckon with. If Microsoft – or any big service provider for that matter, ignores the Indian market now, it might just become too late for them to become a serious competitor in the times ahead.
What do you think ? Is there any MSN service that you use on a regular basis ?
Microsoft just has a different business model. They are not willing to get into something unless the money is there. And they think that they can catch up when they want to or buyout someone else – ofcourse may not always work – sometimes its a good idea, other times its not.
Examples:
- They caught up with Sony’s PS with Xbox which was created later.
- They tried to catch up with Apple with the Zune – ofcourse it did not work out but that’s just how msft operates.
They will wait for others to open up the market first.
thats pretty true vivek..but when they’re head to head against a formidable innovator like google, it might be very difficult to play catchup — which is exactly what they’re doing in the US market.
You got a good comparison chart up there, but all I can say is that different companies have different models that suit their needs best.
Marketing and getting that kind of leverage in India also means big money.
Although Google has been successful in enticing the Indian Market, Microsoft hasn’t had to do that because Microsoft is already a brand name and probably for them the Indian market is not of immediate concern.
They have their own problems and I think sooner or later we will have the (not so) big boy come to our shores with our share of technology
Brilliant observation pranav.
After the reading the article i just reminded of the following.
Google —— (tuned in to their users )
Focuses on the user, understanding their needs , trying to solve their problems,making their life better. innovations are comming from google as their complete focus is on the users and very less on their competitors.
on the other hand
MIcrosoft———–(tuned in to their competitors,less tuned to their users)
As they focus much on their competitors instead of users average products will be result.
Iam not saying microsoft is not inovating.iam a big fan of live mesh (a brilliant app which i use daily).
With such a great engineers they can bring in much more innovations when they focus much on their users and their vision instead of their competitors.
Google has done the right thing by localizing search (and other products). Not sure if anyone else has done that or is willing to do that. As to MS ignoring markets where there is no cash, there is a good deal of money to be made. I’m sure Google is most likely to have plenty of followers in India and they should be making a lot in Ads too.
What i think is that Google is comparatively new to India than microsoft.
Microsoft Windows is known to every other user , even if they know very little about Internet or computer.
And since Google is new and their every service is free so user are attracted more easily to it!(especially indian users
)!
Google regularly updates its services but Microsoft name is attached only with Window and Office which you get with your new PC.
So their is no further connection to any Microsoft product other than windows updates!!
@rizwan, microsoft’s problems began because it was underestimating google earlier..and was complacent with its msn portal. if they dont act now, it might just become too late for them to compete effectively with google.
@rama — well said..in fact, they’ve doing the same for a long time now. xbox — sony psp, sharepoint, sql server and so many other technologies. they have been able to do so effectively against other companies, but the rate at which google innovates just makes m’soft’s job that much more difficult