Business

A Year Ago: MSN wants to rule UK SoHo Net access

This story was first published January 26, 1997

Written by Martin Veitch, Contributor Jan. 27, 1998 at 12:00 a.m. PT

Microsoft wants to be jostling for the right to be called the UK's largest means of Internet access for consumers by the end of

the year.

"If we're not within spitting distance of the leaders by the end of 1997 I'll be disappointed," said Taylor Collyer, Microsoft

Network (MSN) UK marketing director. That would represent some remarkable growth as current leader CompuServe

claims about 350,000 users in this country while Microsoft only last week passed the 100,000 mark.

Collyer also denied claims by rivals that Microsoft is hyping its figures. "What we're sure of is that 100,000 users today are

using MSN to access the Web. Only about 10 per cent are in the trial period and that's the same at any given time." The total

number of MSN users who are consumer or SoHo users is "in the high 90's", he added.

Show Comments