The online video market has not been kind to Microsoft. Neither has it been kind to Google or Yahoo for that matter. But Google made a brilliant move back in 2006, and coughed up some $1.5 billion for YouTube, a deal on which Microsoft's Chief Executive Office, Steve Ballmer, said pass at the time, arguing that there simply was no business model and that the copyright infringement aspect was simply not worth it. Over a year later and Google is top dog on the online video market, while Microsoft is in real danger to slipping off entirely.

The latest statistics published by comScore reveal that, in December 2007, U.S. Internet users watched a total of 10 billion online videos. And Microsoft only managed to grab a meager part of the audience. "December represented a considerably strong month for online video viewing," said Erin Hunter, comScore executive vice president of media and entertainment. "With the writer's strike keeping new TV episodes from reaching the airwaves, viewers have been seeking alternatives for fresh content. It appears that online video is stepping in to help fill that void."

Microsoft only served 180 million videos in December, for a total of 1.8% share. Back in 2006, the Redmond company was building its own YouTube, under the Soapbox brand, a service that was subsequently melted away into MSN Video. But despite owning the MSN portal, which attracts in excess of 500 million visitors each month, MSN Video is failing miserably at getting off the ground. Overall, MSN Video attracted just 20 million unique visitors in December 2007, for a share of 10.9%, four times less than Google - 80 million audience, and a share of 43% of all Internet users in the U.S.

"Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property in December with 3.3 billion videos viewed (32.6 % share of videos), gaining 1.3 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for more than 97 % of all videos viewed at the property. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 358 million (3.5 %), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 340 million (3.4 %) and Viacom Digital with 238 million (2.3 %)," comScore added.