Microsoft CEO’s big bets on the future
On Friday I told you about Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer’s riff on Bing and Yahoo. I asked him: How much market share do you need to gain in search to not need to do a deal with Yahoo (YHOO)? Ballmer called my question “back-handed” and went on to give a really interesting answer. Check out the video or my Friday Postcard if you missed the Microsoft boss’s take on Bing and Yahoo.
Ballmer nobly engaged and sparred in our on-stage Q&A at last week’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He batted back my question about the global recession this way: “I don’t think we’re in a recession. I think we’ve reset. It’s very different. A recession sort of implies a recovery.” He added: “For planning purposes, I don’t assume there is a recovery.” Here’s more from Ballmer on the “reset” and how Microsoft is adjusting to it:
The Festival’s 2009 Media Man of the Year wasn’t afraid to sock the ad community with bad news. Ballmer proposed that media spending might decline as a percentage of GDP in the next 10 years. “We live in a funny Internet world,” he told the crowd of 1,000 or so. “As soon as all information and content is digital, and the marginal cost of production can look pretty close to zero, you get all kinds of changes in the monetization models.” Innovators will invent new ad-funded models, he said, “yet at the same time, the amount of time that people will be spending in relatively advertising-free environments could continue to increase.”
Not a happy outlook. Though, as I noted to Ballmer and the audience: Who can predict, really? I mentioned that I’d last been to this Lions Festival in 1993—and read aloud this prediction from a 1993 Fortune story titled “How Bill Gates Sees the Future”:
“I think the intelligent-corded phone will catch on faster than the PDA (personal digital assistant). We can take today’s office phone system with all those features you can’t figure out how to use and put a screen on it, and even do simple video conferencing. Also, in four or five years, you’ll have wild advances in flat-screen technology that will really change what makes sense to be on paper versus what makes sense to be on that screen.”
Ballmer’s reply to his famous partner’s outlook: “Well, he was right on 50% of the predictions!” Indeed, and the art of business is betting big on the right 50%.
Bing has potential. Unlike Live, Bing is serious about content, and its delivery. Google is a one trick pony. All there ventures except search engine doomed. It is very hard for Google to keep gaining market share.
I think this article proves that Money/CNN is really out of touch when it comes to the Tech industry.
“Bing” is the sound something makes when hitting the ground.
It got potential, but what does Bing.com bring new to the table?
This search engine doesn’t add up to Google so it’ll go down.
It’ll go so low, it might find new oil reserves in the process.
Co-founder and creative director of Tory Burch LLC
- Power Point: Heed the ham!
- Ex-White House Press Secretary: Straight talk on careers
- Portraits of Powerful Women
- Career advice in a minute–or 10
- Power Point: Oprah says, “Own yourself”
- Behind Oprah’s next big move
- NBCU’s “Trash TV”: the full view
- Power Point: How to pick a magazine cover
- NBCU gives new meaning to “Trash TV”
- Power Point: To friend or unfriend?
- In relation to Anns comment about sen... More
- As a former employee of vistakon in l... More
- Hope here again! There are more pe... More
- I would like to congratulate Hope for... More
- How about Capt Sully? The pilot on t... More
- Celebrate your advertising campaign! ... More
- Well said Hope.Yes bullying does go o... More
- Im Sure the polish and Ukranian mana... More
- Hello, this is the real Eddie here an... More
- Looking at Jim's retraction. To me it... More






“Not a happy outlook.”
For who? You or me? The less time I spend inundated with advertising, the more time I have to lose money following Fortune’s advice.