10 Reasons why Microsoft should sell Flickr
Microsoft’s $44.6bn bid to buy Yahoo! is a hot topic at the moment to say the least. Since Microsoft offer a huge premium over Yahoo’s market value to its shareholders, the only real question seems to be whether the US government will permit the takeover. As a loyal user of Flickr (I paid my renewal fee last week), it makes me wonder what will become of it.
I believe they will sell Flickr. My reasons for this break down two ways: Positive reasons to “sell” it, and negative reasons to “get rid” of it. Here they are…
- Sell: Flickr is not a “bubble” company. Unlike Facebook et al, Flickr provides a service that people will not tire of (photo sharing) and are prepared to pay for.
- Sell: Flickr is profitable and would surely sell for a good price.
- Get rid: Because it is a paid service, there is no advertising opportunity.
- Sell: Flickr has an enthusiastic user base.
- Get rid: The same user base were unhappy when Yahoo bought Flickr.
- Get rid: Flickr is built on PHP and it isn’t Microsoft’s M.O. to support products based on a rival platform.
- Get rid: Porting Flickr to .Net would be a massive and thankless task.
- Get rid: Flickr does not fit within Microsoft’s Windows Live aesthetic.
- Get rid: Its users would react negatively to any attempt to re-brand it so.
- Get rid: Microsoft have already made technology investments in photo sharing, having recently bought WebFives.
For these reasons I think Microsoft will regard Flickr as more effort than it’s worth. This leaves the question: who will buy it?
UPDATE: As I thought, Flickr users don’t seem too keen on the buyout.
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February 4th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
‘Flickr is built on PHP and it isn’t Microsoft’s M.O. to support products based on a rival platform.’
Perhaps, but Microsoft have been working VERY closely with Zend of late and recognize the benefits of PHP over .Net and certainly within Windows 2008 have not only acknowledged PHP, but encouraged its use in certain situations.
‘Its users would react negatively to any attempt to re-brand it so. ‘
While a large portion of the Flickr crowd are very much net savy pro open source types, once you’ll uploaded and invested a good portion of your images up onto Flickr it becomes a great pain to move and start over again.
I’d honestly expect to see Flickr rolled into either Vista/XP’s Photo Gallery or the Vista Sidebar. Allowing users to directly publish their photos onto the internet would be a great strength to MS’s OS.
MS have been desperate for a competitor to Flickr for a long while now, so it seems highly unlikely that upon ataining their goal, they’d sell it… at least in my mind.
February 4th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I have no problem if MS want to put their logo in place of the Yahoo! logo while maintaining its platform agnosticism.
Its easy integration with iPhoto was one of the factors that clinched it for me as my photo sharing site of choice.