Microsoft Unveils First Look of New MSN in India

The idea is to allow the consumer use the new platform seamlessly from any location and any device.

Microsoft has unveiled the new new-look MSN in India. Designed from the ground up for a mobile, cloud-first world, the new MSN combines content from the media outlets with personal productivity tools that help consumers do more.

It has been built around the insight that knowledge and information should be accessible regardless of where a consumer is or what device is in use. The new experience is available on the web and will soon be available across all major device platforms, including Windows, iOS and Android. People can try the new web experience at
http://preview.msn.com/en-in
.

Sanjay Trehan, head, MSN India, Microsoft, says, "The new MSN brings together the world's best media sources along with data and services to enable users to do more. It focuses on the primary digital daily habits in people's lives, helping them complete tasks on the web and across all of their devices, roaming data and personalized settings to keep users in the know wherever they are."

MSN is partnering with biggest global content sources such as The New York Times in the US, Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun in Japan, The Guardian and the Telegraph in the UK, Le Figaro and Le Monde in France, and Lance and Estadão in Brazil and many more. In India, Microsoft has partnered with top local content partners, including Hindustan Times, NDTV, India Today, Indian Express and Network 18.

It will cover sections such as sports, news, health and fitness, money, travel and video, from publishers across the world. It will also include information such as the latest statistics on over 200 global sports leagues, reviews of over 1.5 million bottles of wine, over 300,000 photographed recipes and more. MSN's expert editors are hand-curating the content for individual markets and cultures from over 1,000 sources.

Adam Anger, general manager, Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising, says, "With an audience of nearly 425 million people coming to over 57 markets around the world and available across three major device platforms, the new MSN presents an enormous opportunity for publishers. With over 50 per cent of people accessing content on dedicated apps, this release is in lockstep with where usage is happening."

The new MSN brings information and the opportunity to shop, check flight status and savings calculators, to integrated access to popular sites like Outlook.com, Facebook, Twitter, OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. At the top of the page, there is a personal strip allowing consumer one click access to top services so that they can stay on top of what's happening in their lives.

These integrated tools cover eight categories letting consumers explore, plan, do, and track the activities he/she cares about. It can set up topics to follow about the news he/she cares about. When a consumer is searching for recipes and find one that it wants to prepare, he/she can convert the ingredients into a shopping list which will roam from the web to the mobile apps so that the consumer can have it when she needs it in the grocery store.

For brands, MSN will continue to offer its loyal audience with a personalised web experience with the added benefit of the best-of-the-web publishers and the engagement of applications across all mobile operating systems. The new MSN is an ideal environment for seamless brand storytelling across devices.

Though the face of MSN has transformed, the process of buying ads is simple. Brands can still enjoy ease of purchasing through similar IAB standard units available on previous versions of MSN. Ken Chang, commercial director, Asia Pacific, Microsoft Advertising, says, "We're thrilled to offer a new experience to both advertisers and consumers that help people do more."