14 DAY TRIAL // Online viral video is yet another market where Microsoft rests in the shadow of its direct competitors. The Redmond Company's online streaming video properties delivered a poor performance in March 2007, in terms of eyeballs and Microsoft is not surpassed only by direct Internet rivals Google and Yahoo, but also by traditional media outlets that have transitioned to the web. According to statistics from Internet metrics company comScore, Microsoft was the source of just 151 million video streams in the past month. This is equivalent for the Redmond Company with a share of just 2.2% of all the volume streams initiated.
"March saw Americans consume more than 7 billion video streams online, led by Google Sites with 1.2 billion (16.7 percent share of streams). Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 434 million streams (6.2 percent), followed by Fox Interactive with 421 million (6.0 percent) and Viacom Digital with 260 million (3.7 percent)," comScore revealed. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft's results cannot be directly connected with the closed Soapbox beta service, as MSN has also underperformed. The Redmond Company managed only a modest six place in accordance with the volume of streams behind Google, Yahoo, Fox, Viacom and Time Warner. As for Google, it looks that the $1.5 billion spent on YouTube have a healthy potential to turn up a profit.
"Google Sites (are) the top U.S. streaming video property with 57.4 million unique people streaming ("streamers") and 1.2 billion video streams initiated (followed by Fox Interactive Media with 47.4 million and Yahoo! Sites with 34.5 million). YouTube.com drove the lion's share of the video streaming activity at the Google Sites property with 53.5 million unique streamers and 1.1 billion streams initiated," comScore added. After Internet Search and advertising, Microsoft is also lagging behind Google and Yahoo on the online video market.