Posts tagged as:

Cashback

Microsoft Loses Their LiveSearch GM

by Jason Wilk on December 17, 2008

Microsoft has lost an important leader on their quest to gain a larger share of the search market. LiveSearch general manager, Brad Goldberg, who has been with MSFT since 1997, is leaving to become CEO of Peak6 private equity group.
Goldberg was the most recent Microsoft executive to take on the seemingly never-ending battle against Google. Although he didn’t help much with the market share, Brad did help to launch Live Search Cashback, which arguably was a success.
Goldberg’s last role at the company included finding a new brand name for Microsoft to re-brand LiveSearch. He is the one who came up with the name Kumo. It is still not clear when Microsoft will go ahead with a re-brand, considering the speculation is Microsoft wants to use the Kumo domain after they acquire Yahoo.
This exit is fine for Microsoft who has just named a former Yahoo executive Qi Lu the new president of its Online Services Business. Lu will be in charge of bringing new life to Microsoft’s online presence, which is probably one of the tougher business development jobs in the world right now.

by Jason Wilk on December 5, 2008

Save The Planet And Win is the latest green social network to launch looking for different ways to encourage people to cut back on their carbon emissions.
Beyond the basic online community platform, Save The Planet And Win offers incentives for its users to build up points and redeem them for carbon credits, donate them to a cause, shop or exchange for cash. Beyond earning points, the site offers ‘group’ capabilities so people can form their own coalitions, etc.
How the points are eared: Every week the site will offer a 30 second clip from a sponsor. If a user watches the ad from start to finish, they gain points.
Other features include a ‘Carbon Collective’ where groups can monitor their combined carbon reduction efforts, as well as forums for sharing green tips and ideas.
Very standard site. It’s always interesting to see new marketing strategies out there, especially ‘cash-back’ type initiatives like these. TC

by Jason Wilk on November 25, 2008

Market share results in the search game came in yesterday.
Google’s growth rate slowed in October to 29.9 percent, while Yahoo’s and Microsoft’s came off the flat line.
Yahoo’ s U.S. search volume grew 7.7 percent (up 0.6) and Microsoft’s grew 4.2 percent (up 1.2).
Together they still only account for 29 percent of U.S. search market share, but what if Microsoft’s secret Kumo project were to be the project that would result out of a Yahoo acquisition).
Keep LiveSearch as a CashBack incentive search program and continue to increase lead generation money for shopping and travel destinations. Let Yahoo operate it’s search homepage and powerful content properties. Launch Kumo as a Google search competitor, sell ads across all three destinations, increase market share with another brand and slowly creep up on Google. Launch Kumo with LiveOffice products, better mail, and many Yahoo BOSS API elements. I’m not saying this will 100% work, I’m saying if I were doing business development for Microsoft, I would be pushing hard for this to happen.

by Jason Wilk on November 13, 2008

Comscore shows Microsoft Live Search referred 12% of all commercial transactions across the web (still no Google) in October.
The rise in referral transactions has come from Microsoft’s Cashback program that rewards users with cash-back if they are to buy something by starting their product query in LiveSearch first.
Considering Microsoft’s search market share hasn’t grown because of the Cashback service (9%), it shows that their user base is willing to spend money if they are incentivized.
This has resulted in a 30% growth in Cashback offers made to customers, with 20 of the web’s 50 top online retailers in the U.S. now targeting Live Search users.
Although still not as powerful as Google yet in terms of shopping lead generation, Microsoft should be ecstatic. In a down economy, advertisers are very willing to pay for a guaranteed purchase.