Bing wants to be France’s biggest search engine
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Bing wants to be France’s biggest search engine

21st March 2011

We have been waiting for their arrival for a while, but finally the ‘official’ Bing has landed on the mainland in Europe. In France to be exact. And this invasion is supposed to be the upset to a dominance of Bing as the major search engine in France. A huge task for the head of Microsoft France’s Consumer Internet Division, Gregory Salinger.

In an interview with the French newspaper Le Journal du Net Salinger expresses the high ambitions he and Microsoft have in France: they want to be number one.

The choice for France as launching country in Europe is not a surprising choice. France has been a country in which Microsoft has always gone strong, whether it be with Windows or for example Microsoft Advertising where they have a 13% market share and a turnover of 204 million in the first half of 2010.

Salinger says he is aiming for three main points for Microsoft in France: accelerate their presence in the three screens that are the PC, mobile and television, strengthen their partnership approach, like agreements with content providers and services and combine all screens with Microsoft Advertising. This last point made some people suggest we might be seeing Microsoft Advertising ads when waiting for the Microsoft PC to start up…

Salinger specifically talks about Bing. He is aiming for a very large market share:

“Our ambition is obviously to get about the same amount of market share as Google and all our efforts are concentrated on that. But it is a goal we will achieve over time.”

and

“Our ambition is that Bing is the most used search engine in the French market, it is after all the engine which is the most relevant on a number of themes important to French Internet users.”

He further explains that Bing is, like Microsoft is used to do, working with partners. In this case for example PagesJaunes Allociné (Yellow Pages), the French National Library and the GIE e-Presse Premium are content partners for Bing.

Salinger has set his goals high, we will see what will happen. France will be the example for how Bing will try and get into the rest of Europe, so it will be interesting to see what happens there.

A recent study showed Bing needs to do some work to get a better grip on Google’s market share when it comes to where people are looking at.

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Bas van den Beld is an award winning Digital Marketing consultant, trainer and speaker. He is the founder of State of Digital and helps companies develop solid marketing strategies.
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