In its latest bid to make money on free Internet services, Microsoft Corp is betting that consumers will be willing to use their instant messaging identities as billboards for products ranging from Sprite to Adidas sneakers.
The newest version of MSN Messenger instant messaging product, released late Wednesday, allows consumers to download free backgrounds, pictures and other content tied to specific ad campaigns. The hope is that users will then share those downloads with other consumers -- providing another boost to advertisers, who pay Microsoft for the privilege.
Blake Irving, a corporate vice president with Microsoft's MSN online unit, said the company hopes to attract users who are so taken by the advertising campaigns that they choose to associate themselves with the brand -- much like a person might buy a Starbucks Corp coffee mug.
Microsoft is launching the program with German sportswear maker Adidas Salomon-AG and Sprite, made by Coca-Cola Co.
Analyst Charlene Li with Forrester Research said Yahoo Inc's messaging service has been providing a similar service for some time. She expects such tactics to be successful with brand brands like Nike Inc or PepsiCo Inc's Mountain Dew that people think are cool.
"The fact of the matter is people have very strong affinities for brands," she said.
Irving said the company also is expanding other advertising functions. That includes gearing ads to users it believes are of a certain age or gender, or who live in a specific area. The company also will begin putting text ads at the bottom of instant messaging screens.
Microsoft is also releasing the official first version of MSN Spaces, a free personal Web journal system that debuted in test form in December. As part of an advertising campaign, Ford Motor Co's Volvo Cars of North America is debuting its own "space" that will solicit commentary from Volvo loyalists. Irving said Volvo will have editorial control of the posts.
Li said such sites represent the future of corporate blogging, in which "customers do the marketing for them."
The moves come as companies search for new ways to reach consumers who are increasingly avoiding ads on television and elsewhere.
"It's getting harder and harder to reach people, so the appeal of something like a messenger is that it's putting the marketer into places where you couldn't see them before," Li said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure