Following the success of Facebook Week, every week on Read/WriteWeb we are going to focus on a particular Web Technology topic and investigate it. We'll write 4-5 feature posts on each topic, run a poll, and also revisit past R/WW posts on the subject. We're calling this new feature the Read/WriteWeb Files.
This week we've opened up a file on a recent statement from Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang. It was during Yang's debut earnings conference call on Tuesday 17 July, in which he said that "the next 100 days or so" will be spent mapping out Yahoo’s strategic plan. Here is Yang's full '100 days' statement:
"Looking ahead, we want to dramatically improve our performance and capture the major growth opportunities we see ahead for the Internet. I intend to spend the next 100 days or so focused on mapping out a strategic plan for the long-term success, working with our teams to put the right organization and the right people in place, and making any necessary changes.
We are well on our way with a top to bottom review of our business in order to effectively address the company's challenges and capitalize on our many great opportunities."
While there is a fair amount of generic executive talk in there ("working with our teams to put the right organization and the right people in place"), the '100 days' bit tells us that Yahoo is serious about getting its house in order. Also Yang's comment about "making any necessary changes".
The fact of the matter is: Yahoo needs to change, because otherwise it risks being left behind.
Yahoo is no longer the number 1 property on the Web, at least according to this month's comScore Top 10 Worldwide Online Properties report. That puts Yahoo at number 3, behind Google (#1) and Microsoft (#2). Yahoo is still ahead of its new media competitors - Time Warner is #4 and Fox Interactive #7.
In important areas, Yahoo is struggling. Its search initiative Panama isn't making inroads into Google's AdWords and Adsense. In social networking, Fox's MySpace and now Facebook are leaving Yahoo in their dust. And in key products Yahoo is being left behind by Google especially, and in danger of being overtaken by new media companies. For example in online video, Yahoo is a distant second behind Google - and only just ahead of Fox.
Of course it's not all gloomy for Yahoo. Further into the July earnings call, Yang refers to Yahoo being "a deep and active marketplace", noting that "it's an ecosystem that involves several hundred million participants every single day; consumers, advertisers, publishers and developers." And they could well argue they are still the number 1 portal on the Web, due to its largely consolidated properties - whereas Google and Microsoft are all over the shop with their different properties (e.g. YouTube is a Google property, but is largely self-sufficient and not integrated into Google's portal offerings).
Looking at the big picture, it's fair to say that Yahoo's attempt to become a 'big media' company over the past few years - in the mold of a CBS or Hollywood studio - has largely failed. That saw previous CEO Terry Semel exiting stage left this year, and now it's 100 days and counting under JerryYang's directorship. It's kind of like the star director being sacked from a blockbuster movie, and now there's only 100 days left to wrap filming on what everyone expects to be next summer's biggest release. Except it was actually due out a couple of summers ago and now the script needs a major re-write! A lot of pressure for the new director.
"Um Tom, unfortunately I'm going to have to fire your ass..." (pic by Maximum Mitch)
In any case by the middle of October, we should expect to see significant changes in Yahoo's product portfolio and probably a new overall strategy (or at least a better defined one).
What can Yahoo do to get back in the game? In Jerry Yang's 100 days, what will be on his hit list and what Yahoo properties can he promote or enhance more? Stay tuned to Read/WriteWeb this week to find out. In the meantime, please participate in our special poll:
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Yahoo! does not care for its users:
Sir, my account has been deactivated.Please help me and tell me how 2 reactivate it. I am getting a message thatmy account was deactivated bacause of violation of your TOS.
And i would like to tell you that i have done nothing.
Here is what happened ( Am pretty sure other users must be suffering from this problem)-- i got a message in my chat from some buddy that contains a link ( http://quicknews.info ) , after clicking on which my pc get infected with a virus or something and start sending some links to other fellow of my yahoo messenger friend list.and in morning when i tried to sign in again. I got error. This account is important to me as it has all my friends address. please resume this account as soon as possible for you.
I donot know if they(Yahoo!) reactivate this account or not... but atleast they should have informed before deactivating my email( thats my concern).
Richard, help me what should or what could i do in such a situation.
Posted by: John | July 30, 2007 4:18 AM"Its search initiative Panama isn't making inroads into Google's AdWords and Adsense."
One sec, Panama is just one aspect of attacking Google search market share. Panama has been divised to catch up with google on monetization of search, making sure that for every single search on Yahoo, the company makes as much or more money as google. Panama is working well on these aspects but now there are other problems to adress: making sure more people use yahoo Search and acquiring the best network of partners possible. Without those two things, you can have the best ad platform in the world, no advertiser will be interested in using it. yahoo will now need to focus on those two things.
Posted by: Julien | July 30, 2007 6:03 AMThe Panama upgrade has been a big improvement in using Yahoo search marketing, however it still is not as good or as easy to use as Google's Adwords.
But Julien makes a good point, that it is just one area, and Yahoo also needs to get more people using its search. Google's Adwords wins because Google gets by far the most number of searches. Advertisers will go where the people are.
A angle Yahoo could use to increase its number of searches would be to promote itself as an addional / alternative set of results. I am regularly amazed at the different results that you get between Google and Yahoo, so that now when researching something I will usually use both. Sure, for something straight forward, where I know what I am looking for but just can't remember the website, I'll use Google by default eg like the London transport journey planner. But when actually searching for things when I'm not sure which websites might have the answers, I'll do a search on both engines, as that frequently provides a better total set of results.
Posted by: Robert | July 30, 2007 6:35 AMIt's amazing, I just finished responding to a Yahoo blog on Yahoo itself.
I agree with John above, Yahoo does not care about its users. They have a long road ahead of them to combat their issues - and pushing out new software isn't the answer. They really need to sit back and focus internally and create a positive relationship between themselves and the outside world. That change and energy alone will definitely move Yahoo back on the right road.
They seem to be aggressively trying to obtain users through avenues such as additions to their currently bloated brand website, panama and Ajax - it's almost panic-like. I don't blame them, they've lost a lot of ground, the world has been screaming the answers to them through various Social Networking websites - The People, ysers who are the product that will make Yahoo win are the answers. People are the reason Social Networking and Blogging are huge areas on the internet. Knowing this, any major company should know that "People" make your website, not the amount of software they create.
Yahoo is notorious for slammed doors, an unsettling thought, but the one issue Yahoo seems to avoid most often is it's user-base.
Posted by: Asia | July 30, 2007 9:35 AM"I agree with John above, Yahoo does not care about its users."
True, but although google cares more about their users that's not what makes them the top.
"They seem to be aggressively trying to obtain users through avenues such as additions to their currently bloated brand website, panama and Ajax - it's almost panic-like."
http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/8489/googleyahoouw6.gif
I live on a different market, Europe, Portugal, I made the same question about yahoo, live search and google to a lot of people and a lot of those people gave me the same (predictable) answers, they rather use google search and services because:
1) commodity, it was the first they started to use and everybody uses, sort of like windows some said
2) simplicity, yahoo has too much garbage as Asia said and has no obvious advantage, as for Live, it is rather unknown to them
3) you may find it amusing, but several people said google has no ads =P
I think it would be interesting for R/WW to compare these different markets, it doesn't happen often, at least I don't remember seeing it happen.
Posted by: luis abreu | July 30, 2007 2:24 PMYahoo! has a large base of users.They could beat Google if they care for their existing users.
Wats the uses of new services offered by Yahoo! if their existing users leave/doesn't care of their existing services.
Here's my advise for Yahoo!
Take care of existing users, sort out their problems, ask them to co-operate, collaborate with them.
Invite users to have their opinion.It is users that make up Google, YouTube, FaceBook and many others.
So better take care of user( Person of the Year-- By Time).
.... and of course here's ur user who is waiting for its account reactivation (Yahoo id: mynameisjonny2001 ).
Mr. MacManus, your comments/advise is important to me(and also to a large numberof users, who might face similar problem in future and also to Yahoo! for their improvement-- Removing CEO is not a solution, solution is to take care of existing ones)...
So plz...
Posted by: John | July 31, 2007 9:34 AMYahoo is sinking. I think Yahoo almost loses its aim. What Yahoo is doing now is engaging Web-2.0 technologies to maintaining a Web-1.0 model, which is ridiculous.
Above all, Yahoo is a "WEB" company, but not a media company or any other things. Therefore, Yahoo must understand how the evolution of World Wide Web has affected its model before it considers any other human effects. Google has done very well on this point, but certainly Yahoo did not. I am quite pessimistic on the future of Yahoo.
--- Yihong
Posted by: Yihong Ding | July 31, 2007 9:42 AMJohn, you'll need to use the Yahoo Support system:
http://help.yahoo.com
I'd be very surprised if you don't get a response.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | August 1, 2007 12:16 AM