Comments on: MicroHoo: Mail Monopoly Part of Yahoo's Price Holdout http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080502/microhoo-mail-monopoly-part-of-yahoos-price-holdout/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:34:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: dave mcclure http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080502/microhoo-mail-monopoly-part-of-yahoos-price-holdout/#comment-3143 dave mcclure Fri, 02 May 2008 21:15:36 +0000 http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080502/microhoo-mail-monopoly-part-of-yahoos-price-holdout/#comment-3143 yep, definitely the core merger item both sides are trying to keep quiet. i wrote at length about this a few weeks back: <b>Microsoft + Yahoo = Hailstorm 2.0</b> http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/2008/03/web-30-isnt-the.html (btw: i think your AOL #'s are understated... those might be web-mail #'s that don't include client-side email; not sure) regardless, i'm not sure it's likely to be a regulatory issue since email & IM are being given away for free by *EVERYBODY* (GOOG & AOL as well as MSFT & YHOO). <b><i>Q: is it really a "market" or a "monopoly"</b> if you don't charge anything for it, and neither does the competition?</i> you could easily make the case that if MSFT/YHOO ever tried to charge for email or IM, both Google and/or AOL could compete easily and gain market share. perhaps they *could* bundle to preference another product, but that would be a future monopolistic action, not a current one. still, your summary of the issue is on target... don't think i've seen anyone except you & dan farber with a good take on the email issue. [golf clap goes here] more interesting in the long-run though is not just email per se, but what you can DO with the email assets to provide close-to-universal login, mining social graph data, and preparing for the <b>"Social Commerce Revolution"</b> that's coming in about 1-3 years... watch this space :) yep, definitely the core merger item both sides are trying to keep quiet. i wrote at length about this a few weeks back:

Microsoft + Yahoo = Hailstorm 2.0
http://500hats.typepad.com/500.....t-the.html

(btw: i think your AOL #’s are understated… those might be web-mail #’s that don’t include client-side email; not sure)

regardless, i’m not sure it’s likely to be a regulatory issue since email & IM are being given away for free by *EVERYBODY* (GOOG & AOL as well as MSFT & YHOO).

Q: is it really a “market” or a “monopoly” if you don’t charge anything for it, and neither does the competition?

you could easily make the case that if MSFT/YHOO ever tried to charge for email or IM, both Google and/or AOL could compete easily and gain market share. perhaps they *could* bundle to preference another product, but that would be a future monopolistic action, not a current one.

still, your summary of the issue is on target… don’t think i’ve seen anyone except you & dan farber with a good take on the email issue. [golf clap goes here]

more interesting in the long-run though is not just email per se, but what you can DO with the email assets to provide close-to-universal login, mining social graph data, and preparing for the “Social Commerce Revolution” that’s coming in about 1-3 years… watch this space :)

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