Jono said:
The fact is MSN do make a lot of money through from UK Online, Expendia, Money, shopping, advertise, banners etc. If they offer you for free service then how they improve the service as MSN get better everytime. They must have money for giving to the programming, stuff and the profit itself. So there is no chance for 'Money free'.
Are you experience in internet marketing? Well I do in 3 years experience and a web development. If you disgree with my idea, then better research yourself. You will realised one day!
Are you aware that MSN is owned by MICROSOFT?
If you claim to have 3 years of experience in web development, you should had been aware of MSN being a part of Microsoft a long time ago.
Microsoft CAN afford it. They only use advertisements to reduce the COSTS! Where do you think they get all the money from?
Their softwares, hardwares, and more.
Microsoft fund the programming costs themselves, they don't need the advertisers' money.
That goes for the MSN Internet service too as well.
Just because you are experienced in web development doesn't mean you're right about Microsoft. Do you have any idea how many people use MSN messenger?
Imagine the costs since they have at least 200 million users on MSN Messenger alone.
Plus, they haven't made any profit off Xbox either, but that's what they planned in the first place... to lose money in order to succeed.
Microsoft is a company that isn't too concerned about losing money.
I am fully aware that there are at least 4 divisions that they are losing money on including MSN Internet Service, XBOX and more.
Jono, are you able to provide us the information on quarter figures/revenue for MSN Messenger services?
Please do it in order to prove yourself right.
So far as I am concerned, MSN Messenger hasn't been profitable yet unless they plan to charge people fees.
Why is Microsoft investing so much in a free service if MSN is focused on becoming profitable?
Irving: By investing in MSN Messenger, we continue to cultivate a group of very excited consumers, and we hope to one day turn that relationship into billable opportunities, such as charging for premium services. A good example is the phenomenal success we've seen with the avatar services we launched early this year in Korea. Avatars are small, customizable characters that people can create to develop an online persona while using MSN Messenger. People pay a small fee to personalize them with, say, sunglasses, a boombox, a designer outfit, or hip hairdo. Within a few months of making this service available, more than 1 million avatar transactions occurred within Korea alone. This points to potential revenue opportunities that could broaden in the future. We also see a potential revenue opportunity in the instant game capabilities we're offering with MSN Messenger. As third-party developers build more games, we could offer an online game subscription for people to use over MSN Messenger. These are just a few examples, but we think we've just scratched the surface with what we can do with IM.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2003/jun03/06-17MSNIM.asp
This clearly give me the impression that they haven't made a profit off MSN Messenger and you're telling me to do research?
Okay.