Can Google stand up to Microsoft, Yahoo combine
Can Google stand up to Microsoft, Yahoo combine
According to web traffic analysis firms, Alexa Internet and Netcraft, Yahoo’s US portal is the most visited portal on the internet with more than 412 million unique users. In India too, its internet properties enjoy higher market share than that of MSN. At a recent conference, Yahoo India managing director George Zacharias claimed Yahoo touches about 80-85% of the online community in India either through e-mail, search or its portal.
“Agreed that MSN may not enjoy the largest market share, but you have to understand that Microsoft’s focus in India was not purely internet as in the case of other competition. We had a major focus on software and enterprise businesses, the portal business assumed importance only about a year ago when India started showing signs of growth,” MSN country manager India Jaspreet Bindra told ET.
Commenting on the India operations, he added that MSN India’s focus was primarily in three areas: online entertainment, mobile content and localisation of portals within India. The company last year had introduced its portal in five different Indian languages. It also introduced Windows Live, a set of more personalised services for internet users. According to Mr Bindra, MSN has a user base of approximately 500 million with nearly 250 e-mail users and 150-200 million instant messenger users.
No figures were available from Yahoo India. Yahoo has been more aggressive in India than Microsoft in the internet space while Google has been focussed more on developing technological capabilities from India. Last year, in an indication of the country’s importance Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig, visited India. It is also the only firm among the three to have invested in an Indian online venture, Bharatmatrimony.com. It was first off to announce IM in Indian languages, even before internet home-grown majors.
In India, Microsoft has over 4,000 staff with all its six global divisions being represented here. These include MSN, support centre in Bangalore and development centre, Microsoft IT (which develops IT for Microsoft globally) and Microsoft Global Services in Hyderabad while it has nine sales and marketing offices across the country. On the other hand Yahoo has over 1,000 employees (20% of its global engineering workforce) in India in its two divisions — the R&D centre and the India specific site. Yahoo’s R&D centre in Bangalore is the largest that the company has outside the US. It develops products for Yahoo India and the global markets. The Bangalore centre is also the hub for Yahoo’s emerging markets.
On a visit to India, Yahoo co-founder David Filo had said, “India will play an important role in supporting growth in emerging markets. We will continue to give more responsibility to our group here.” As far as Microsoft acquisitions are concerned, in the last decade or so the Redmond giant has bought out over 75 companies. While in 2006 it acquired 11 companies, including Whale Communications and Lionhead Studios. Among the most crucial recent acquisitions for Microsoft was Groove, in 2005. Interestingly, Groove CEO Ray Ozzie is today Microsoft’s chief software architect.
Mr Ozzie has the hard task of reinvigorating the 70,000 employee company that is no longer seen as the thought leader of the internet age. He has also been entrusted with the task of ‘webifying’ Microsoft — taking its products online — software, Xboxes et al. In an interview to ET late last year Mr Ozzie had said, “One of the characteristics of Microsoft that many people envy is that once Microsoft sets its sights on a market, it will continue to invest in building solutions that satisfy the customer even if it takes lot of time.’’
However, Microsoft has not always been successful with acquisitions. Microsoft was in talks to buy SAP after database major Oracle announced that it was launching a hostile bid for PeopleSoft (which Oracle eventually bought). Now Microsoft is determined to acquire at least a piece of a the Internet portal company Yahoo, if not the whole of it.
