Regional Executive Producer for MSN in Europe, Middle East and Africa Alexandre Michelin recently paid a visit to South Africa to talk about the future plans of MSN in terms of taking the brand beyond just a news website.
ITNewsAfrica spoke to Michelin about the re-launching of several portals, the success of the South African website and how MSN stays relevant in a sea filled with free news and websites.
* What direction is MSN going in?
MSN is a very resilient brand and we have really good content distribution. We built it on the old AOL model and we feel that it’s on the move. We are in the process of re-inventing it, and will have new home pages for each region. We are also adding a lot more real-time social interaction into the site such as Facebook, Twitter and photo galleries. By doing so, each region will benefit from the global base and create content for everyone.
* How does MSN stay relevant with news so freely available?
We choose the right partners in the best way possible – that’s very important to us. South Africa is fantastic and we partnered with people who understand the flavours and the reality of the country. In order to create engagement and build loyalty, we need great local partners.
* How successful have the African MSN portals been?
They have all been very successful. The North African site is managed by a MSN partner and that has been fantastic, and some portals are leaders in their field. Africa is a fantastic opportunity, and we would like to take it mobile next. We started strong on the pc, but now we want to move to mobile and then on to all devices. The African MSN portals are actually the fastest growing regions of them all.
* Why take the decision to re-launch the portals if they have been successful?
We have to adapt to a new reality as the digital revolution is here upon us, where mobile and social interaction combines. We had to re-invent the portals to stay ahead in the game and it is only the first stage of the transformation. By making it a more social interaction, it’s the beginning of the overall integration. From there we can work on all the other channels to create one place to bring everything together and share content.
* What can users expect from the re-launching of the portals?
We will mainly change the design experience and the layout will be the same over all the portals. This creates a uniform browsing experience and look – which is minimalistic, but it works. We will also add in Facebook functionality in the beginning, and rolling out to other social network sites after that. A visit to the portal should be an interactive media experience that users can personalise and adapt as they see fit.
* How impactful has MSN become on other markets?
We have a competitive advantage over traditional media and MSN Messenger is still going strong. In many territories we are number one in terms of unique users, but in countries like Russia we have some work to do. There we have less of an impact because they have their own social networking sites. That is why partnerships are very important so that we can create a different experience for them compared to other territories.
By Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech Editor
