Microsoft to dominate online advertising?

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s Chief Executive, believes that sometime in the next decade, all advertising will be digital. He said as much at a recent media event in Paris, according to the New York Times and BusinessWeek.

by Helen Leggatt

microsoft%20logo.jpg Ballmer went on to predict that, over the next 4 to 10 years, around 25 percent of Microsoft’s revenues were likely to come from advertising. Perhaps much of this will come from ad-supported Microsoft products.

"As much as people sometimes like to pick bones with advertising, people much prefer an ad-funded experience to one that they pay for," he said. “Even the basic software that we've delivered for so many years - if it can be ad-funded in the way it gets delivered to consumers, it probably will be ad-funded.”

Over the past few months Microsoft has been building a firm base on which to build its advertising ambitions. In May, the company purchased aQuantive for $6 billion, giving them the capability to sell and place ads and measure performance.