Bing Cashback Back For Ebay

[Half-Saint]

http://www.discoverbing.com/cashback/programupdate/index.html?fbid=73wWh-9x5BO&wom=true

[skcheng]

http://www.discoverbing.com/cashback/programupdate/index.html?fbid=73wWh-9x5BO&wom=true

I just got that too.   Oh well.....I didn't think it would last.

[tamasrepus]

Just got an e-mail earlier today. Apparently, Microsoft has killed Bing Cashback:

Dear valued cashback customer:
 
  We are writing to notify you that the Bing cashback program will be discontinued, and the last day to earn cash back on your Bing Shopping purchases will be July 30, 2010.
 
 Until July 30, 2010 9:00 pm PST, it's business as usual so continue to take advantage of great offers from your favorite merchants. You can redeem all of your earned cashback savings consistent with the cashback terms and conditions and access the Bing cashback customer support system through July 30, 2011. We encourage you to redeem your cashback savings and to further support redemption, we are waiving the $5 minimum payout effective July 31, 2010. To assist with prompt delivery of your cashback earnings, please visit http://cashbackaccount.bing.com to ensure your account information is current. For more details and answers to your questions, please visit our frequently asked questions page.
 
 Thank you very much for being a loyal cashback user.  We remain committed to delivering great value to our customers, and we are currently working on an exciting new program which you will hear more about from us later this summer.
 
 Sincerely,
 
 Bing cashback team

[hyperlinked]

Bing is now a default search engine choice in Safari 5.

That's a really disappointing graph for Microsoft. All the belated Windows 7 upgrades was supposed to give them a massive boost in payola.

[shellyagal]

I am a regular online frugal shopper and mostly use cash back portals like Bing, ShopAtHome, AAfter Search and Ebates.

[wellington1869]

Tragedy!  Buy while you can, folks.

"Dear valued cashback customer:
 
We are writing to notify you that the Bing cashback program will be discontinued, and the last day to earn cash back on your Bing Shopping purchases will be July 30, 2010."


http://www.discoverbing.com/cashback/programupdate/index.html?fbid=KV1v1GavtLi&wom=false

Well, that also answers the question of how long can such a promotion continue realistically.

[hyperlinked]

Bing! Time's up Welly... and you're late by 2 weeks.

[wellington1869]

Bing! Time's up Welly... and you're late by 2 weeks.

lol, thats what i get for going to chicago Just catching up with the rest of the world...

well I dont know which is a bigger tragedy, that bing is dying, or that I just ventured back into mechanicals... i bought a mech board... i'll probably regret it  I definitely dont want to get sucked back into all the buying and the modding, but I think I can handle just one.

[hyperlinked]

Welly, you've fallen off the wagon.

[didjamatic]

"One won't hurt you."
"Everybody does it."
"You can quit any time."

[wellington1869]

Welly, you've fallen off the wagon.

seriously. I'm very disappointed in myself.

"One won't hurt you."
"Everybody does it."
"You can quit any time."

haha i think thats how i got into this mess to begin with

but really I have to hold the line at one... It was totally a shopping-therapy episode. I was too wiped out from chicago (spent 2 weeks relocating my mom who just retired). I was a good son (for 2 weeks anyway, lol). Since no one noticed, hell, I rewarded myself  Just so happens I have everything else I need at the moment technology wise, so I got something I totally dont need right now, lol.

[wellington1869]

glory hallelujah, bing is still alive.

i'm still getting the bing discount icon when i go to ebay VIA the bing.com website's search.

[aegrotatio]

Are Browns for real, or is it just misinterpreted Reds that people think look like Browns?

[muchadoaboutnothing]

It's stupid that they killed Bing cashback.

Basically, a few years ago, there was a site called jellyfish.com. They figured that they could use affiliate linking to make a profit, take a cut off the top, and then give a check back to the consumer for some of the affiliate money. They also had cool "Smack Shows" where they'd have an unknown quantity of an item, and you'd watch the discount rise on the item. It was a game of chicken since you wouldn't know when there was only one left (or if there was more than one), so if you waited too long you'd forego any form of discount altogether. I almost got a PRS-500 in 2006 for $150...

Microsoft liked the concept and thought it would make Bing popular, so they implemented it.

Microsoft markets the concept, but not the engine. So Microsoft tries to increase usage through cashback promos where they pay out more cashback then they take in (MS did the same with the Xbox, and while that division is still deep in the hole, it has made a consistent quarterly profit for a couple years). The result is sites like SlickDeals and Fatwallet using it heavily, but consumers not even knowing about it.

So Microsoft moves the extra cashback links into ads within the Bing search (if you go to bing.com/cashback you may see 3% for Tiger Direct, but if you search "LCD TV" on bing instead you get 15%). Neat concept, but it just lead to people keyword scrapung regularly for extra cashback links.

Microsoft could have saved the program by marketing it better (a TV commercial where someone is enjoying their laptop, or watching their new plasma, and a guy from Microsoft shows up and hands them some cash. Simple, effective, memorable.) and stopping encouraging SlickDeals by making unprofitable promos (e.x. 30% off eBay and HP) that people would watch deal sites for and not use the search engine at all.

[wellington1869]

bing is still working though... they havent turned off the spigot yet.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

bing is still working though... they havent turned off the spigot yet.

It goes dark on July 30th.

[wellington1869]

It goes dark on July 30th.

oh, my mistake. I thought the cut off date was JUNE 30th.

damn, so i have 2 more weeks to buy all I can, lol.

[hyperlinked]

Microsoft could have saved the program by marketing it better.

I'm still not sure how MS could make money at this even if it does get wildly popular. I wrote earlier in this thread about some possible strategic motivations, but I don't see a revenue model here.

[hyperlinked]

so i have 2 more weeks to buy all I can, lol.

I'll decide on your next purchase for you Welly... a calendar.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

I'm still not sure how MS could make money at this even if it does get wildly popular. I wrote earlier in this thread about some possible strategic motivations, but I don't see a revenue model here.

Bing cashback is powered by affiliate links.

• User logs into Bing Cashback and searches for something, uses the Bing Cashback link
• Site sees affiliate is Bing CB
• User completes purchase. Store gives MS cut of sale as affiliate. For our hypothetical, we'll say 8%.
• MS takes some percentage for overhead.
• The user gets whatever percent MS promised - 5%, perhaps.
• MS keeps the rest for overhead and maintaining the program.

The problem is that Microsoft has been offering cashback in excess of what they're getting in the affiliate links. Instead of increasing user loyalty (using Bing, because typically the extra cashback links come up when you search for terms like "lcd tv" in  the search engine) or attracting new people to the site, they're making people on SlickDeals and Fatwallet who would use the program at whatever percentage happier.

They never marketed it effectively either so people outside of these communities don't even know Bing cashback exists.

[wellington1869]

I'll decide on your next purchase for you Welly... a calendar.

lol, my new palm pre plus (arriving tomorrow, yay) should help with that

[wellington1869]

I don't see a revenue model here.

thats probably why they're shutting down, to be honest. I'm sure they've run the numbers on this promotion and made an economic decision. Ultimately the numbers have to make sense else companies wont do it.

tho i also agree that they probably made some strategic mistakes (bad marketing etc) which affected those numbers.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

thats probably why they're shutting down, to be honest. I'm sure they've run the numbers on this promotion and made an economic decision. Ultimately the numbers have to make sense else companies wont do it.

tho i also agree that they probably made some strategic mistakes (bad marketing etc) which affected those numbers.

The revenue model works properly when your cashback is offered below the amount of affiliate money you're getting from the store.

MS has been offering it in excess of the affiliate money, but hasn't gained a ton of users from it (other than deals forums people, who will use it endlessly). They never marketed the cashback.

They're giving up a program that had a working revenue model when they acquired it and could very well be saved.

[hyperlinked]

They're giving up a program that had a working revenue model when they acquired it and could very well be saved.

I can see how that would work as a business, but it really doesn't make any sense for Microsoft unless they use it as a way to

• help Bing gain market share
• reduce the dominance of AdWords as the online advertising channel of choice for many vendors

It makes no sense for Microsoft to crawl into a totally unrelated market to their core competency and start a discount deal brokerage. If it's integrally tied to their search engine, then it makes sense, but not as business in of itself.

I'm disappointed. I was hoping there would be some secret business strategy in all this that would make this very interesting to dig into.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

I can see how that would work as a business, but it really doesn't make any sense for Microsoft unless they use it as a way to

• help Bing gain market share
• reduce the dominance of AdWords as the online advertising channel of choice for many vendors

It makes no sense for Microsoft to crawl into a totally unrelated market to their core competency and start a discount deal brokerage. If it's integrally tied to their search engine, then it makes sense, but not as business in of itself.

I'm disappointed. I was hoping there would be some secret business strategy in all this that would make this very interesting to dig into.

• That's what they were hoping, but they implemented it in a totally wrong fashion
• That was also part of the point, vendors would increase the cashback offered (not as much as MS made it) when they got in for terms like "ps3". They show up in prime positioning at the top of search results. Additionally, when you searched for a product it would show product links that went to Bing cashback anyways.

They already paid a few million for Jellyfish. Why flush it down the toilet?

[hyperlinked]

That's what they were hoping, but they implemented it in a totally wrong fashion

They already paid a few million for Jellyfish. Why flush it down the toilet?

Oh, was Bing just Jellyfish reborn as Bing Cashback?

I think they also got caught doing this at the wrong time. Retail vendors have been increasing their griping about the amount of money they they're having to pay in fees to specialty cards with exotic reward systems.

Once everyone stopped spending money they didn't have,  businesses that were sustained by volume alone really came undone. I suppose that would include the Bing network.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

Oh, was Bing just Jellyfish reborn as Bing Cashback?

Yes. Minus the cool reverse auction shows

I think they also got caught doing this at the wrong time. Retail vendors have been increasing their griping about the amount of money they they're having to pay in fees to specialty cards with exotic reward systems.

Most stores have an affiliate system anyways. Most stores like Newegg had nominal cashback (2.5%) which was perfectly sustainable.

Once everyone stopped spending money they didn't have,  businesses that were sustained by volume alone really came undone. I suppose that would include the Bing network.

The bigger problem is that MS knows what it wants to be internet kings, but they have no cohesive strategy to do so that they're implementing.

[hyperlinked]

The bigger problem is that MS knows what it wants to be internet kings, but they have no cohesive strategy to do so that they're implementing.

It seems that perhaps Microsoft got too large for its own good. With the success of the iPad, there are all these stories coming out about how Bill Gates beat Steve Jobs to the punch (at least publicly) on having a tablet computing strategy, but yet could not come up with a viable product. Along with that all the stories about how vicious politics at Microsoft is.

Then again, it's always easy to attribute a cause to a result in hindsight and  maybe their size had nothing to do with all the stumbling they've done in recent years.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

It seems that perhaps Microsoft got too large for its own good. With the success of the iPad, there are all these stories coming out about how Bill Gates beat Steve Jobs to the punch (at least publicly) on having a tablet computing strategy, but yet could not come up with a viable product. Along with that all the stories about how vicious politics at Microsoft is.

Then again, it's always easy to attribute a cause to a result in hindsight and  maybe their size had nothing to do with all the stumbling they've done in recent years.

It's all Microsoft's size which leads to politics, conflicting groups that are not merged, different groups that refuse to work with each other, etc.

The head of the Office division was heavily anti-tablet at the time that MS was really pushing the tablet PC movement. As  a result he refused to help them integrate the handwriting recognition and other features into Microsoft Office.

MS can't win because its size gets in the way. They need to restructure some of the groups internally.

Of course, saying it is easy. Doing it is hard

[aegrotatio]

I still like my $280 dual-core laptop and my other dual-core $350 laptop courtesy of Bing Cashback.

[hyperlinked]

MS can't win because its size gets in the way. They need to restructure some of the groups internally.

True, but this was what I meant in that it's easy to assign a cause to an outcome. Not that long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Microsoft was unbeatable because of its size. That they weren't nimble enough to get anything right the first time because their size was too much of a hindrance, but they'd just keep churning and put out a capable second version, and by the third version you might as well quit if you were competing against them.

[cicada]

nvm