quote:
Originally posted by jpg050
If they lose money because it's free for us and expensive, why did M$ create it in the first way ? I buy a newspaper to read it, what was M$ obtaining when creating it ? They did it to kill the others, then, when no one uses the others, I'll charge them (soon to come in you Windows desktop). That's no "poor me, I'm losing money". If you're losing money, close it.
Microsoft get a lot of revenue from Messenger... they have banner ads, tabs, and extensive links to other .NET and microsoft related stuff like the MSN Gaming Zone and Hotmail. It also adds to the Windows sales marginally because that's another thing that you can't do on another platform.
Microsoft gets none of these benefits if a Linux/Mac user uses the .NET Messenger Service, or if windows users use a 3rd party client. They still have to provide the extra server coverage though. It's only natural that they should charge if other people want to use a client without all the ms advertising schemes.
However I agree that the chances are, they thought when they started the service, "We can afford to let 3rd party software use our servers, but if it's not worth it for us one day it'll get us extra money from all the people who would pay to stay part of the network"
It's all part of staying on top... they've given messenger lots of users (encouraging others to join them or stay because that's what all their friends are on) now they need to give their client more users. It's an investment MS has made and has full right to collect the full capital on.
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