Microsoft has just announced on their blog that they will be closing their popular rewards program, Bing Cashback. It is a dark day for all the bargain hunters in the US and a celebration for all the smaller rival businesses.
The explanation given is that the revenue Microsoft was pouring back at the shoppers didn’t result into new search traffic acquisition, and keeping the program as a business of itself (which it once was) apparently hasn’t been in Microsoft’s plans.
Is it another evidence that “money cannot buy happiness” as Techcrunch puts it, or am I just being sarcastic here? Which ever way it is, my strongest sentiment is a feeling of sadness about all the great technology wasted by the company in an attempt to salvage a fairly unrelated business.
I agree. Had MS played its cards better, and built a constellation (including a social network and user-generated shopping guide, etc) around Bing, then the cashback feature could have attracted an able crowd of fans, and kept retailers interested in being a part BCB.
MS needs some new blood in its strategy teams, fancy IT degrees and MBAs are no substitute for people with vision, IMHO.