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Microsoft's small-business portal promises entrepreneurs coverage in multiple marketplaces.
Many analysts consider Microsoft's BCentral to be a small-business portal. But if Microsoft's vice president and head of BCentral, Satya Nadella, has his way, the portal will soon be thought of as a technology-- infrastructure provider. "I don't think we're building just a destination site," Nadella says. "Our vision is to build a platform that serves as a point of intersection between both user and developer."
The year before Microsoft launched BCentral.com in September 1999, it acquired LinkExchange. LinkExchange made banner ads affordable to small business-a sector that was previously priced out of the advertising market. LinkExchange made it possible for small businesses to barter or buy ads
in chunks for as little as $100 at larger sites like Microsoft Network or ExciteAtHome. With small businesses accounting for more than 50 percent of LinkExchange's customers, it became the...