Microsoft Luring People To Use Edge Browser, Bing With Vouchers, Credits

Would you be willing to use Microsoft’s Edge browser and the Redmond-headquartered company’s own search engine, Bing, if you will get paid to do so?

In a desperate move to increase the number of users of its Edge browser, Microsoft launched Microsoft Rewards on Wednesday with the aim of luring more people into using Internet Explorer’s successor in exchange for some goodies.

According to The Guardian, Microsoft is now bribing people to switch to its relatively new default browser, since not many people are using the replacement of Internet Explorer ever since it was launched alongside Windows 10.

With Microsoft Rewards, which is exclusive to the U.S. market only, consumers who are making the big switch will earn points by using Edge. Microsoft is even monitoring the number of hours people are spending on Edge, and the company ensured that this monitoring system is very strict that consumers would not be able to cheat to obtain more points.

Accumulated points can be swapped for vouchers and credits that can be used for Starbucks, Amazon, Skype and even the ad-free version of Outlook.com.
However, there’s another condition to meet to earn more points: Users should ditch other search engines and set Bing as their default search engine. And this is not at all surprising because Microsoft Rewards is just a rebranding of Bing Rewards.

Launched in 2010, Bing Rewards was Microsoft’s loyalty program that offered credits which consumers used in redeeming products and gift cards or making charitable donations, as per Search Engine Land.

Late last year, Microsoft expanded Bing Rewards by introducing the rewards system to MSN. At the time, the program gave credits to users who get their daily news fix from MSN.com, Search Engine Land stated in another report.

Now that its Edge browser is not getting the reception it had hoped for it since debuting it in May, Microsoft has another reason to revive its loyalty program. As per CNET, despite touting Edge as a more battery efficient and faster browser than its rivals, its global market share is only around 5 percent.

The Guardian noted that if Microsoft is serious in strengthening Edge’s reception, it should be willing to spend lots and lots of money because Chrome’s global market share comprises 58 percent of internet users.