Siegelman defined MSN as a superset of private and public online services (visa, ecommerce, subscriptions, search engines). The primary competition was the internet itself. Customers could connect with information providers directly without MSN serving as an intermediary. To the extent that Microsoft could successfully persuade users and information providers to adopts it proprietary software for secure transactions on the net, a toll road would be possible. Gates had confidence that a large market would develop and make his propriety software and business come into demand. Gates believed millions of dollars would begin to pour into development. Broadband customers would not switch software that they had become accustom too. Microsoft would compete with the heavy weights in entertainment, communications, and other industries. Gates identified multi-billion-dollar businesses for each broad category of future online services. He assigned shopping and advertising an estimate of $100 billion of annual revenue.[Learn More ...]

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