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A interesting discussion has appeared over at Robert Scoble’s blog concerning Windows Live Spaces and facts/numbers regarding how many Spaces can actually be considered “blogs”. What started the discussion was Richard MacManus’s report of George Moore, General Manager for Windows Live, reporting to folks at TechEd in New Zealand how Windows Live Spaces is “now the largest blogging service on the planet”. Mike Torres, Lead Program Manager for Windows Live Spaces, replied to Scoble’s questions regarding the validity of George Moore’s remark…
And Torres revealed that about 50% of Spaces are private and “hidden from the world in almost every way.” Scoble responded that the 50% weren’t really blogs and now the blogerati are in full cry chasing the topic.
My own take is much simpler: what really matters are eyeballs and monetization. On eyeballs, earlier in the year, Microsoft was touting comScore numbers that showed 100 million unique Spaces visitors in April 2006 and made Spaces “the most widely used blogging service worldwide.” On monetization, Spaces isn’t a charity activity since Microsoft is running ads unless the Spaces bloggers ante up for a Hotmail Plus subscription, but information on profitability is in short supply. Presumably, it is intended to be merely a part of the entire Windows Live gestalt, but you can’t expect to lose money on every piece and make money on the whole.
