At Microsoft, advertising has become an increasingly importantsource of revenue over the past few years. “Our search revenueencompasses both Bing [the Microsoft search engine] and also therevenue generated through a number of syndication deals onplatforms which are powered by Bing,” explains Jose Luis Marti,director of Microsoft's Worldwide Online Credit Services (WOCS)treasury team. “On our platform, we provide both display and searchadvertising, and in both cases it tends to be customized based onour customers' and end users' preferences.

“It's our job in the treasury team,” Marti continues, “to ensurethat the number of impressions and searches a customer purchasesdoes not exceed what they can afford to pay, which is determined bytheir credit limit. If we assign a credit limit of $100,000 toCompany X, then they should receive only $100,000 worth ofimpressions or searches. Once they reach that limit, they will notreceive any more advertising until they have made a payment or theysecure a higher credit limit.”