Microsoft’s online video rank second only to YouTube following rapid gains

By Tom Warren, on 18th Mar 11 1:46 pm with 13 Comments

Microsoft’s online video sites have soared into second position in the U.S. following big gains for the company.

Google’s YouTube property still dominates the top spot but Microsoft has moved from seventh position to second according to figures from comScore. Google’s sites, including YouTube, account for 141.1 million unique monthly viewers. Microsoft has captured the number two position with 48.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! sites with 46.7 million viewers. Facebook also came close to Yahoo! with 46.6 million viewers.

Microsoft’s video properties primarily consist of Bing Videos and MSN Video. The jump in viewers likely coincides with the recent growth of Bing. The figures follow similar gains for Microsoft’s Zune Video service. The software giant’s Zune video platform now accounts for 17.9% of the market compared to 11.6% in 2009. Microsoft cemented its U.S. number two market rank during 2010 according to figures from IHS Screen Digest.

Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a new set of music and video services, codenamed “Ventura”. The new services are being developed by Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices (E&D) unit. The services will focus on music and video discovery and consumption. “Ventura” also appears to run on Microsoft’s Azure cloud hosting. Little is known about “Ventura” and how it fits into the company’s Zune music and video services. Zune has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Microsoft was forced to confirm it is not “killing” any Zune services after it was revealed that the company plans to rebrand Zune into Windows Live shortly. Microsoft has been suspiciously quiet around Zune and Zune services over the past few months and has reportedly killed off its Zune range of hardware.

U.S. Online video rankings, February 2011 - comScore

  • Alvaro

    But you can upload videos to Microsoft sites. Microsoft kill Soapbox some time ago.

    • Anonymous

      i agree, they should come up with an Microsoft offering or buy one of the competing YouTube Alternative and build up on it. They just need to make sure to make it simple.

    • Alvaro

      I mean “you can´t upload videos..”

    • GP007

      The problem with a service like youtube is that it’s still not making money, even for Google. That’s why Google is trying to work out a paid version of it and also why they paid a large chunk of cash for the VP8 (WebM) codec and then turned around and made it free. They want to switch off of h264 because the free license for it doesn’t cover paid services, thus with HTML5 video using WebM (once enough people use it, if ever) Google can drop h264 from Youtube and start up it’s paid version.

      Also why Google is trying hard to get something like Google TV going. Fact is, Youtube since Google got it is still a black money pit.

    • Guest

      Yeah, they’ve been predicting a profit since 2010, but I haven’t seen anyone verify that it’s here yet. However I don’t think it’s losing anywhere near what it used to.

      Google can easily absorb the commercial fee from MPEG-LA. And their “we need an open web standard” line is mostly bs since they’re still supporting Flash. VP8 is really about trying to hurt Apple in mobile, imho.

    • Anonymous

      I agree. Microsoft should do whatever they can to become the backbone suplier for the next generation of TV like twit.tv. They should be the one serving up the content from “That Guy With the Glasses”, Jupiter Broadcasting” and Twit.tv

      To do so they need to either buy or partner with http://www.blip.tv, then they need to add a livestream function aswell.

      That way they could serve up high quality “netcasts” and let the networks that want to do livestreaming do that aswell, and those livestreams should be able to be added to the “LiveTV” part of Media Center.

  • Guest

    Where would the iTunes numbers fall in these rankings?

    • Guest

      Online video. Not video downloads.

  • GP007

    I think Ventura is probably going to be the platform that unites Bing/MSN video and Zune marketplace together and thus cover everything, PC,TV (with the 360 and IPTV services), and mobile. MS needs one central service I think, and running it all on Azure makes the best sense as well. Right now I’m sure Bring runs on it and probably parts of MSN? I don’t think Zune does though.

    • Guest

      That seems to be the plan. Of course it should have been the plan five years ago. But then MS is always reactive and slow.

    • GP007

      The central cloud platform (Azure) wasn’t ready 5 years ago. Plus other pieces, like the 360, to push Zune to the TV room.

  • GP007

    I think Ventura is probably going to be the platform that unites Bing/MSN video and Zune marketplace together and thus cover everything, PC,TV (with the 360 and IPTV services), and mobile. MS needs one central service I think, and running it all on Azure makes the best sense as well. Right now I’m sure Bring runs on it and probably parts of MSN? I don’t think Zune does though.

  • Anonymous

    I am not surprised by the Zune Digitial Video numbers, their service as far as ease of use and quality destroys the competition IMO