Microsoft does THIS to stop Minecraft players from using Google Chrome

In a shocking development, a Reddit post has revealed that Microsoft Bing is now targeting Minecraft players to pull them away from Google Chrome browser.

According to a Reddit screenshot, Microsoft Bing is offering rewards to Minecraft players in a bid to lure them away from Google Chrome and the Google search engine. (Hindustan Times)

When it comes to the war of search engines, Google is the undisputed winner. But Microsoft has done its fair share to try and lure users to its native search engine, Microsoft Bing. And part of this marketing endeavour has been the classic ‘rewards' strategy. Microsoft is known for offering Microsoft rewards on every search on Bing which can be encashed for gift cards on Amazon, Starbucks and other major retailers. But now, it appears that Microsoft is targeting a very specific demographic, Minecraft players, through an alluring strategy that might just work. Read on to find out what they are planning.

According to a report by TechCrunch, a post surfaced on Reddit earlier this week on a subreddit called “pcmasterrace”. The post, by TrueTech0, was a screenshot from the Microsoft Rewards website where it was seen that Microsoft is offering 330 Minecoins in return for searching with Bing on Microsoft Edge browser for five days. Do note, we have not been able to personally verify this offer so we cannot say for sure that this offer does exist.

Microsoft Bing aims to attract Minecraft players with Minecoins

While this strategy is not new, there is a slight concern. The TechCrunch report highlights that the offer makes sense for only the Minecraft Bedrock edition players as the Java edition already gives access to free mods. The Bedrock edition is playable on consoles and handhelds and generally attracts younger audiences, although that is not an exclusive demographic of the game. But with a high volume of young audience, the strategy to keep them away from Google Chrome and Google Search engine might see a stronger reception as kids might not have the sensibilities to hold themselves back from temptation.

However, it should be noted that this does not make this strategy evil as many companies do this. And eventually, if the final product is not as good, users always tend to go back to their original choice. It will be interesting to see whether this offer sways a significant number of Minecraft players to the Microsoft ecosystem or not.

But why is Microsoft giving out free in-game currency as reward for a free-to-use service? Microsoft is incurring a loss on the free search engine because for the company, the real asset is the information it will gain from the users. Just like Google, if enough people use the Microsoft Bing browser, the company will be able to find out their likes, dislikes, preferences and more — a data which is valuable for businesses in picking potential customers.