Microsoft’s Bing Chat has been troubled by high computational expenses, and the company is thought to be desperate for a way to monetize the service as quickly as possible. Ads in Bing Chat have been rumoured for some time, but Microsoft has officially confirmed its plans to monetize the AI chatbot with advertisements.
According to Yusuf Mehdi, Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer at Microsoft, advertising aims to “bring more traffic to publishers in this new world of search.” The company intends to boost Bing and Edge usage for new scenarios such as chat and will provide a link to the source of information in the chat response’s body and a “Learn more” link below the chat result.
Microsoft met with Microsoft Start partners and gathered suggestions on leveraging Bing Chat to link to their content and services. The business has implemented several early concepts to promote user engagement with Microsoft Start content and share advertising income with partners, such as better hover experiences and rich captions of Microsoft Start licenced content next to chat responses.
While Microsoft is still in the early phases of these advertising initiatives, it is evident that the company is aggressively working on monetizing Bing Chat. The structure of Bing Chat and the overall advertising experience are expected to alter more in the coming months.
Given the increased computational expenses connected with the service, Microsoft’s decision to monetize Bing Chat with ads is unsurprising. Microsoft can recoup these expenses while providing users with a more engaging chat experience by generating more traffic to publishers and sharing advertising income with partners. It remains to be seen how effective these early concepts will be, but Microsoft’s dedication to monetizing Bing Chat is a promising indication for the chatbot’s future.
