Previously we’ve posted a few times about Bing’s plan to move into the heavily Google-centric UK market with a marketing campaign similar in scope to what it had been producing for the American audience. It seems now though that Microsoft have put plans for a Bing UK launch back indefinitely following feedback that believes the UK market will not be attracted to Microsoft’s offering.
Microsoft isn’t planning any large scale marketing ventures for Bing in any country until at least the first quarter of 2010, and this date might even be pushed back further according to Marketing Magazine.
Google has maintained it’s incredibly high market share in the UK with virtually no marketing, allowing the search engine to spread by word of mouth. It’s even more of a household name in the country than it is in the USA, so the market will be immensely difficult to crack. Microsoft’s campaign is based around driving traffic directly to Bing via advertising and partnership deals, but initial comments on the Bing beta have been negative with users believing Bing doesn’t live up to expectations and not finding sufficient reason to use the search engine over Google.
One of the biggest problems with launching Bing in the UK is that the search engine has been designed to appeal primarily to US consumers, with little or no localisation yet available. Wisely, Microsoft have decided to focus their efforts on making Bing appeal to UK users and add consumer functionality before deciding to spend out on a marketing campaign.
It’s important for Microsoft to make sure the search engine is as appealing and different from Google as possible when it gets the initial flood of users after its marketing campaign. It may only have one chance to impress most visitors so the heat is on for the new team at Bing UK to come up with something that might actually see UK consumers switching over from their favourite search engine.
Update: Bing has launched a surprise UK beta this week; although no marketing plans have been announced for the service at the time of writing.
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i am using both Bing and Google and i think both search engines give relevant search results. i would still prefer Google though, because it gives a little bit more relevant search results than Bing.
Yumi Vega(Quote) (Reply)