One unfortunate side effect is this meant they started getting subjected to MSN success metrics. Since they weren’t important to Windows, they needed a new organizational home and most of them got thrown into the MSN division.
They used to be important to drive Windows installs, but by this point, people were buying Windows whether these products existed or not. Though these products were profitable, their revenue was a drop in the bucket compared to Windows and Office revenues. Unnatural organizations: By the 2000s, Microsoft wasn’t quite sure what to do with any of their desktop products like Encarta, Money, Works, Picture It, and Streets & Trips.(There’s a similar answer to why Internet Explorer lost.) By Wikipedia’s early founding days in 2000 the shift to multimedia was complete, so Encarta no longer played this key role within Microsoft and gradually became less of a company focus.
This is why the team mattered within the company.
Encarta really helped Windows be successful by being the killer app to get people to upgrade their PCs to have CD-ROM drives and speakers so they could play Encarta’s multimedia content. Encarta wasn’t Microsoft’s focus anymore: There’s a book “The Microsoft Way” that describes in great detail the really innovative formation of the Encarta product and business.Encarta had a trusted dominant brand and had plenty of time to cement that, so I don’t think all the credit for the win goes to Wikipedia. Can’t just blame Wikipedia: It’s easy to tout Wikipedia’s awesomeness, but it took Wikipedia years to grow to where it is today.I interned on the Encarta team for one summer a few years before its death, had a blast working there, and used Encarta a lot when I was a kid (remember Mindmaze?) so I’ve given this question a bit of thought over the years: