[dan_m2k]

A nice little slice of internet history.

True is the lesson that scale doesn’t represent success. I wonder how many of the current tech companies will learn the same lesson, or have we reached a period of maturity where products that don’t contribute to the bottom line aren’t allowed to linger like this did?

[nly]

Did MSN Messenger make money for Microsoft before they bought Skype?

Brand awareness for "MSN" just from MSN Messenger alone must have been massive. I'd be surprised today if half of your average kids using WhatsApp have even heard of Bing or Office 365. Hell, if it wasn't for Xbox Live the same could probably be said for that

[dan_m2k]

No idea, but I bet the brand equity created for the MSN brand via MSN messenger was indeed huge across a boatload of international markets.

Seems like a huge amount of wasted traction and momentum for the generation that grew up on MSN messenger, and now might be making purchase decisions where that traction could've been leveraged. It's what any other (non tech) brands do very successfully.

I saw someone repost something from msn.com the other day, and was genuinely surprised to see it was still live.

But, the way that the brand was migrated

   MSN Messenger -> Windows Live Messenger -> Bing (?) -> etc etc 

was a shitshow and made death a sweet relief for it.

[nly]

I mean the same could be said for the 'Live' brand