No Love for Microsoft Online Video

If you think that Internet search in going down the drain for Microsoft, then you haven't seen the disastrous statistics for the company's online video offerings. When Google dropped a whooping $1.65 billion on YouTube, Microsoft Chief Executive Office Steve Ballmer criticized the deal basing his assumptions on the lack of a lucrative business model. Meanwhile, Google's YouTube is on top of the world, while Microsoft's MSN video and Soapbox are struggling at the periphery of anonymity. Statistics delivered by Internet metrics company comScore reveal that Microsoft is lagging behind Google, Fox, Yahoo, Viacom and Time Warner in the top U.S. online streaming video properties.

"May saw Americans view more than 8.3 billion video streams online, and Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. streaming video property with 1.8 billion videos streamed (21.5 percent share of streams), 1.7 billion of which occurred at YouTube.com. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 680 million streams (8.1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 387 million (4.6 percent) and Viacom Digital with 237 million (2.8 percent)," comScore stated.

The Time Warner Network is in fifth position with 185 million and 2.2% and Microsoft sites are anodyne with 171 million video streams and a market share of 2.0%. The bottom line is that the Redmond company succeeded in attracting only an insignificant percentage of eyeballs out of the total of 75% of U.S. internet users that dedicated an average of 158 minutes to watching online videos in May 2007.

"In total, nearly 132 million Americans viewed online streaming video in May. Google Sites also captured the largest streaming video audience with more than 64.9 million unique streamers, followed by Fox Interactive Media with 52.7 million and Yahoo! Sites with 35.0 million. Online viewers watched an average of 158 minutes of streaming video per streamer. The average video stream duration was 2.5 minutes. More than one out of three (35 percent) U.S. Internet users streamed video on YouTube.com," comScore added.