Microsoft’s YouTube clone Soapbox is officially shutting its doors, according to reports today. Soapbox, which was launched in 2006 as a hub for downloading and sharing user-generated videos, was never able to be a viable competitor to YouTube.
MSN corporate vice president and chief media and technology officer, Erik Jorgensen, said that Soapbox delivers less than 5 percent of the overall 480 million video streams worldwide on MSN Video each month. In June, MSN Video posted its best month ever, with 250 million streams. But this nothing compared to YouTube’s streams which top around 1.2 billion per day.
Earlier this month, Microsoft hinted that it may be reevaluating Soapbox as a property and possibly be scaling back the site. Even this past week, Microsoft chose to use YouTube for its Bing Jingle contest.
SoapBox eh, why not showergel?
I firmly believe that name plays a big role in the success of any product.
Remember the Seinfeld episode –
GEORGE: Salsa is now the number one condiment in America.
JERRY: You know why? Because people like to say “salsa.” “Excuse me, do you have salsa?” “We need more salsa.” “Where is the salsa? No salsa?”
This exactly applies everywhere in US
I think that it is pretty important in a web-based business, but mostly it depends on the product or service. Some names work well for certain businesses, but would be horrible for others. Soapbox is awful for a video sharing site, but it would probably work great for a discount soap retailer.
No it would be great name for a service like Twitter.
Something wrong with the numbers? 250 million/month vs. 1.2million/day on Youtube. Was that 1.2 bn?
you mean youtube tops at 1.2 billion..
typo: should be 1.2 billion per day
Microsoft prepare a secret new calendar to counter Google Calendar, codename :
sweetylife
Hope it could survive at least 2 years (not like soapbox).
Typo on the previous url
Here it is Sweetylife
Typo on the previous url.
here it is sweetylife
I made a typo on the previous url.
Please delete my previous post if it is possible.
here it is Sweetylife
Microsoft had a YouTube clone?
Seriously though, I can name at least half a dozen other things Microsoft needs to close down. Not that I’m supportive of people losing their jobs but Microsoft has a lot of weight it needs to lose.
Soapbox? Never heard of it. Guess it never mattered anyway…
I never even knew this service existed. Seriously.