Bing has made some significant progress in gaining search volume and making money for Microsoft. The search engine generated $1 billion in revenues in FY16 Q1 fueled in part by partnerships with the likes of AOL and Apple. For FY16 Q2, Bing continued its impressive growth aided by strong use among the growing Windows 10 population.
Specifically, Microsoft made note of two numbers of particular importance:
Search revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs grew 21% CC (constant currency) driven by higher revenue per search and search volume
Nearly 30% of search revenue in the month of December was driven by Windows 10 devices
Microsoft is working hard to make the transition to a “cloud-first, mobile-first” company from being a largely Windows-dependent organization. The company is doing well in its cloud business and making gains with Office 365 as well. And at least as far as Bing is concerned, the growing number of Windows 10 users–for whom the Bing-driven Cortana is an important feature–is resulting in some significant revenue growth beyond the slipping Windows revenues.
While Microsoft’s FY16 Q2 earnings results were decidedly mixed overall, the company does continue to make progress in a number of key areas. Grabbing a more significant share of the lucrative search market is one of them.
