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Just like XBox business, Bing is also another loss leader for Microsoft. Obviously Microsoft would do anything to get market share since they have a gigantor war-chest. A year later with all the cheers from its usual supporters, Bing managed to get "some" increase on traffic. Well, I wonder how much of those are directly coming from Facebook search which Microsoft has a lot of stake in.

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Are you sure the Xbox business is a loss leader?

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64R63P20100528

The entertainment business is in a stronger position, providing most, if not all, of the $851 million operating profit the [entertainment and devices unit] made in the first nine months of Microsoft's current fiscal year.

Originally the Xbox console itself was a loss-leader, with the games being sold to make back the money.

Now, I'm not so sure if that would still be true given that they must have made back their initial manufacturing investments by now...

It isn't fair to cherry-pick profitable quarters late in the life-cycle of a loss leader 'razor blades' model product. I don't know how profitable they have to be from now to the EOL of the 360 to be able to say the strategy paid off; anyone?

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