It was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is investing on a new project to overthrow Amazon in e-commerce supremacy. Sources say Microsoft is working on "Project Brazil" in hopes of competing with Amazon and eBay in the near future. The project, however, may not come to materialize anymore.

Reports on the new venture are unclear. Some say that the company has already found potential partners but other sources say Microsoft already pulled the plug on it. Named "Project Brazil," the software giant was planning on testing the e-commerce waters for better sales potential.

A report in ZDNET was quoted:

"The software giant held discussions with retailers and technology companies about a marketplace, proposing to equip it with an array of merchants, as well as a unified shopping cart and broad shipping options, according to these people. To lure shoppers, Microsoft was considering subsidizing the price of goods on its e-commerce service using a portion of advertising dollars merchants spend on Microsoft's Bing Web-search engine or elsewhere, said the people."

There are no clear explanations why the tech giant decided to cancel the project. What sources say is that Microsoft wanted to have a direct and task-oriented approach to online advertising and e-commerce. Microsoft intended to integrate these features with their Windows operating system along with their Xbox gaming platform.

It is evident how determine the company is boosting their potential for revenue. E-commerce is a growing industry especially for tech and software products. However, taking on competition as big as Amazon is not an easy feat. Different from the Microsoft retail store, the project was a consolidated marketplace. There would be different types of retailers with only one shopping card. The venture was unique and refreshing particularly if Microsoft subsidized the products offering people with lower prices.

There is no way now to tell whether it would have given Microsoft another big break.