Microsoft Network (MSN) - Microsoft Builds Its Online Service, Msn Works To Find Its Focus

The Microsoft Network—MSN for short—is an online service owned by the Microsoft Corporation. MSN.com is a multi-service web portal, comparable to America Online (AOL) or Yahoo, which offers a number of free features to surfers of the Web, including email from Hotmail, news from MSNBC and Newsweek magazine, a variety of financial and shopping services, and MSN Web Communities, a network of chat rooms and online communities.

MSN derives its revenue from a combination of subscription fees, advertising, and e-retailing agreements. MSN's millions of subscribers can use MSN to access the Internet and the proprietary portions of MSN.com. The service has forged strategic alliances with firms, such as AltaVista, John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co., Merrill Lynch & Company Inc., Unilever PLC, and Barnes & Noble Inc., which in turn sponsor a number of individual services on the MSN site. The site has become a nexus of e-tailing with stores like Barnes & Noble and The Discovery Shop represented. According to MSN, in late 2001 it had agreements with over 10,000 businesses that brought in some $6 billion in e-commerce every year.

By 2001, its burgeoning partnership, its slowly growing subscriber list, and the pure glitter of the Microsoft name had helped raise MSN to the number two spot among online services, second only to AOL. Reaching that level, however, was an achievement fraught with missteps, turnarounds, and failure that only a company with the size, power, and deep pockets of the Microsoft Corporation could have survived. And though it was number two in September 2001, MSN was a distant second, its 6.9 million subscribers well behind over 31 million at AOL. In fact, AOL managed to sign up 7 million new members in 2001 alone—more than MSN's entire subscriber base.