Microsoft Advertisement Inc.
What a load of shit.<p>I love the guy trying to infer Microsoft&#x27;s ad profit centers by trying to read between the lines of marketing copy. Entertaining stuff. But let&#x27;s not confuse this for grown up analysis.<p>Microsoft releases their financials, like every publicly traded corporation. Bing search ads are a small part of revenu,  about 5% of what Azure earns, and stable. Desktop ads are a vanishingly small line item. Microsoft&#x27;s strategy is based on platform sales — you know, the part of their business whose revenue is doubling every quarter. Google&#x27;s strategy is based on &quot;collect it all&quot; data hoarding and ad sales.<p>But the punchline is really the best part. &quot;Apple has lit the torch.&quot; Siri and Cortana are analogous products, and they are the motivation for both their companies&#x27; data collection.<p>Actually a voice assistant gives a company a ton of power, but it can be used for different purposes. Alexa doesn&#x27;t exist for ad revenue, it exists to push more sales through Amazon. Cortana exists to push Azure platform integrated features in Windows, effectively doubling down the value of the platform investment. Siri exists to push Apple integrated features and to guard the gates of their walled garden.<p>The only valid part if the article is that it&#x27;s hard to believe that anyone really wants a voice assistant.