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.
1 comment:
I don't think they're necessarily ignoring the Indian market. Part of the Live Mesh team is based in India, in Hyderabad I believe. Their focus may be broader, but I think the India team is primarily working on Live Mesh for Windows Mobile.
With their new social networking push with things like Windows Live Wave 3 and Live Mesh, I would assume that non-US markets are a big part of their planning. And with Roz Ho in charge of the mysterious Pink services for mobile devices, she's bringing more of an Asian and female sensibility to the services that are being developed.
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