Microsoft’s aggressive communications ad push continues

Hong Kong - Microsoft's aggressive march into the online communications advertising space continues with the announcement it is rolling out the ad supported Windows Live Hotmail in 12 markets throughout the region.

Windows says the new platform will feature new formats for advertisers and give them access to a claimed 280 million across both web and mobile device platforms.

Ads will be served to the main mail page but also to a user’s contacts and calendar pages as well as larger ad on the sent mail page and several other pieces of real estate on the mail platform.

The move follows Microsoft bulking up it’s offerings in the online communications space on its popular Instant Messenger service, the Hotmail platform allows advertisers to target users based on demographics like gender, age and geographic location.

Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail platform competes against other popular free mail sites which also offer ad opportunities like Yahoo! mail and the Google owned Gmail platform which serves contextual ads based on Gmail conversations.