Telecom has ditched Microsoft for Yahoo. What do Microsoft do? Launch msn.co.nz of course. (and note, YES, there was no redundant ‘www’ in the press release)
Without even seeing the site Telecom should be afraid – very afraid. As should Fairfax and APN.
Microsoft are linking up with PBL – that’s Packer Broadcasting Limited, who are owners of nineMSN in Australia, which is a pretty successful site.
from the press release….
“msn.co.nz is backed by Microsoft New Zealand, ACP Media and ninemsn, Australia’s leading online media company, and will replace the now defunct xtramsn service. Both ACP Media and ninemsn are part of Australia’s leading media company, PBL Media.”
Expect the advertising budgets to be large, the sales force to be a lot more professional and the expectations high. Well – Microsoft NZ is apparently the local expertise, so time will tel whether the media savvy of PBL in both content and ad sales will permeate the local market. If so it will be god for everybody – online advertising is, despite strong growth, still pretty basic.
Hotmail users will be redirected to msn.co.nz when they logout, so there will be a good sized audience ready made.
Local partners TV3, New Zealand’s number one online job portal SEEK, online sports site Sportal and content from ACP magazines such as Metro, Cleo, NetGuide and Taste will provide a new way to experience the web through msn.co.nz.
Interesting combination, but the question is how effectively TV3 and msn.co.nz will combine. Given the site is not tv3msn.co.nz we can hazard a guess that it won’t be as great as with ninemsn. Part PBL owned Seek will provide some traffic, but, more importantly for Seek, msn.co.nz will provide ‘free’ traffic to allow it to continue to slow the inevitable encroachment of Trade Me Jobs. Should be an interesting battle played out in the traffic statistics ad jobs listings.
Lance Wiggs 