MS YouTube Clone?
Microsoft had a YouTube clone? Hmm, news to me...
Next you'll be telling me they run a search engine as well...
Microsoft takes hatchet to YouTube clone
Microsoft plans to "significantly scale back" its Soapbox service, the would-be YouTube challenger it launched in 2006. Whatever that means. Speaking with Cnet, Microsoft vice president Erik Jorgensen said that Soapbox's YouTube-like user-generated video setup is just too expensive considering the state of the economy. But he …
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500 million...
loss is immaterial to Google. I don't think money-grubbing M$ could stomach a business model like that.
Google knows the way to the future. I would have invested the money in old-fashioned things like real-estate and widget factories. No! 6 Billion people having their own TV channel is what makes money.
Your browser or operating system is
Not Supported
That's as far as I got!
failure 2.0?
Only 2.0? I'm thinking somewheres in the area of 155.9.83 r.J
Next thing you know...
.. they'll be axing Microsoft Money.
Oh. Wait.
They had a YouTube clone?!
They kept that one rather quiet, I hadn't heard of it before reading this article!
Soapbox?
I might have used it if they called it something more 2.0 like.. Wang or Dild. Or Flangr.
Who'd have thought a crappy, derivative web 2.0 fluff site would fail against a pre-established, well known rival?
Compete with rival for profit in a service that isn't even breaking even for them and will cost you development, maintenance and hosting. Recipe for fail. I'd rather have a cheaper Windows thanks, but feel free to wank away your money.
What is this Soapbox you speak of?
Add me to the crew who had no idea that Soapbox even existed. Yikes!
Lies, damned lies and website hit counts.
Oh, they mean MSN video!
The only reason they get so many hits is because every time someone opens up MSN messenger (sorry, Windows Live messenger), it displays an ad popup containing videos from the site and some adverts. I've clicked on few out of general interest but I would be ashamed to count myself as a Soapbox subscriber.
Microsoft...
It's time get off from your Soapbox.
It's the grey coat on the left, thanks.
Also never heard of it
and astonished that they thought it would be a good idea to be honest.
Amazing experiences?
Now pull the other one!
What is soapbox anyway?
And so it should die...
... because it's been around for three years and I didn't even know it existed!!!
Soapbox?
Until I read the comments, I thought I must be the only one that had never heard of it.
No bloody wonder they're shutting it - if no-one's heard of it then no-one's going to be using it...
Paris, because MicroSoft's stupidity rivals hers.
Hmm...
I dimly remember the name now you mention it. It seems like a case of MS leading the pack, here. I cant imagine that youtube will hang around for that much longer without some pretty major changes - those changes may happen slowly, without fanfare, but they'll happen. You just need to look at the music videos debacle in the UK and Germany (?) which youtube/Google have managed to make into "the man wanted too much money" rather than a "we can't pay the musicians for their work cuz we're skint" to see that things are changing.
It doesn't take a genius to see that taking the two major expenses in IT, namely bandwidth and storage and turning them into a free service is going to cost money hand over fist.
voice box removal
YouTube is actively trying to hide public user-made videos. So no surprize MS are cutting back that aspect of their service too. It's all part of removing the public voice in the West. With digital TV and radio the norm, what way can people spread the truth there now?
Count me in...
...as another user who'd never heard of Soapbox until this article. Amazing. And I read tech news (mostly El Reg, admittedly) almost every day.
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