Every business experiences competition online. Companies compete to persuade users to purchase their products or use their services over their competitors.
Google is known as the go-to place for most users when carrying out searches for products and services. They have dominated the search engine market share for many years – 78% of the total market share in May 2017 (Netmarketshare). Bing has the second highest market share with 8% (Netmarketshare), but they are looking to improve this.
Recently, Microsoft decided to introduce the UK to their rewards programme in an effort to increase the number of people using Bing. Each time users carry out a search on Bing they will earn 3 points – if you use Microsoft Edge you could earn double points! Users can only obtain a maximum of 30 points per day (60 for using Edge). However, there are other ways that users can earn additional points; if you use Microsoft’s online store, they will give you a point for each pound you spend.
Should you manage to earn over 500 points in a month, Microsoft will promote you to their second level where you can earn up to 150 points per day.
The points you earn can be exchanged for a number of different rewards including Xbox digital gift cards, Skype credit and Groove Music passes. And, if you are feeling charitable, Microsoft are also partnering with a number of UK charities as well.
The rewards programme does seem like a smart idea from Microsoft – incentivising people to use their search engine – but if they decide to stop the programme will these people continue using Bing?
Does this seem like a desperate attempt by Microsoft to increase its search engine market share, or a clever way to introduce new users to their search engine?
Inspiration – The Verge