Microsoft rethinking Soapbox after struggling against YouTube

Microsoft is considering ways to "focus" its Soapbox user-generated video feature to fit the content and strategy on its MSN portal, executive Erik Jorgensen confirmed today. As reported by CNet News.com, that would essentially remove the company from direct competition with Google's YouTube, the site that Microsoft was hoping to rival when it launched Soapbox less than three years ago.

But Jorgensen, MSN corporate vice president and chief media officer, declined to use such definitive terms when we spoke with him by phone this afternoon. No final decision has been made, he said, and MSN overall isn't giving up on user-generated video.

"Soapbox as a destination isn't as important to us as user-generated video content across the network," Jorgensen said. "That's the whole premise of what we're doing. The idea of user-generated video content is super important. The role of that (Soapbox) brand and the way it fits into MSN is something we're continuing to explore, to figure out how it's most useful and relevant to the MSN audience."

The site was positioned as a YouTube rival when it was launched in September 2006, with one Microsoft executive pointing out then that it was still "early days" in the user-generated video market. But Soapbox as a brand never gained significant ground on YouTube.

"Video in general is huge for us," Jorgensen said this afternoon. "We are looking at ways in which we get user-generated and blogger and social media through video in a smarter way moving forward -- in a way that ties in directly to our content strategy for MSN in general."

The company, he said, is looking at Soapbox to see how it can "improve it and focus its effort moving forward."

Soapbox is housed on the broader MSN Video site.

Companywide, Microsoft has been making a series of cutbacks in the face of the difficult economy. The company last week said it plans to stop selling its Microsoft Money financial management software, the latest in a series of consumer software programs and online services to be discontinued.

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