Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge • Hacker News Board

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#81

Post by porsupah » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:20 AM UTC

pavornyoh wrote: post #40

A genuine question for you. What exactly does Yahoo do? When I think of Google, I think of search. With Amazon, an ecommerce giant for my shopping needs comes to mind. But with Yahoo, nothing comes to mind except all the spams I got when I had their email...

For me, they're:

(1) the owner of Flickr, an acquisition they've tried to futz around with, but haven't actually managed to damage too much yet. (True, the site design's become much more heavyweight, but that's a general web design issue) Interestingly, whilst they tried to go ad-only, removing "Pro" accounts, they later reinstated them - but with an oddly tone-deaf press release that trumpeted that account level's availability again, and that rates wouldn't go up for two years. Fair enough, except Pro had been $25/yr, and they quietly noted they'd be $50/yr in the future. Is ad-only revenue that strong to consider dispelling paid accounts?

(2) The original curated web index. Fiendishly difficult to scale, absolutely, but while it lasted, it was remarkably useful. Could such still work? It'd be a tremendous challenge, but, Wikipedia might suggest so - it's not as if Wikipedia is free of dead/changed links, but the footnote links do indeed tend to be useful.

Yet, as I recall, their finances are/were quite robust - we may well simply not be Yahoo's audience.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#82

Post by PhilWright » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:30 AM UTC

Whenever I see a struggling company like this I ask myself the simple question. If the company didn't exist, would there be a need to create it? In the case of Yahoo I think the answer is no. If they disappeared tomorrow there would be no compelling reason for others to try and fill the gap it left behind. Hell, I doubt most people would even noticed they had gone.

So they need to build a new business from the dying ashes of the current revenue. At the moment it does not look like the CEO has any good ideas on how to do that.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#83

Post by tayo42 » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:31 AM UTC

hooande wrote: post #75

Yahoo started as a couple of people who said "This internet thing has a lot of content now, let's try to organize it for people." They should go back to doing that, and throw 20 years worth of technology and cultural growth at the problem. Along with as much manpower and machine learning tech as hundreds of millions of dollars can buy. I do enjoy the drama of the Mayer Saga, but it doesn't seem like any of Yahoo's at…

>But it does seem like Yahoo isn't doing anything innovative right now.

Aren't they starting to stream nfl games for free? The first one they did was from what I heard handled very well. I thought there was talks about more.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#84

Post by cft » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:32 AM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #24

Sometimes, well it actually happens quite often, a company just runs its course and is better off just winding things up and closing shop. IMHO it looks like the likely end game for Yahoo is: - taken private by a Private Equity firm - divest Yahoo Japan and Alibaba - any divisions that aren't making an actual profit, (tumblr, flickr, fantasy sports, etc, will be shopped around and sold if possible, or shuttered if no…

It depends on who is trying to resurrect it: Marissa Meyer or Steve Jobs. Imagine a reality show: Jobs or Musk in 2010 were tasked to turn Yahoo around, and the rules were that they would only have access to Yahoo's internal resources and cash. I would bet with my money buying Yahoo stock that they would reverse the curves.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#85

Post by firloop » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:41 AM UTC

avn2109 wrote: post #69

gelatocar wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can also bypass the paywall by clicking the 'web' link under the post title on HN.

I am not new at all to HN and never knew this, cool :)

It was added a couple of months ago.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#86

Post by DannoHung » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:56 AM UTC

PhilWright wrote: post #82

Whenever I see a struggling company like this I ask myself the simple question. If the company didn't exist, would there be a need to create it? In the case of Yahoo I think the answer is no. If they disappeared tomorrow there would be no compelling reason for others to try and fill the gap it left behind. Hell, I doubt most people would even noticed they had gone. So they need to build a new business from the dying…

I object only on the grounds that Flickr is the only good photo site for people who really care about their photos.

Having tried to use 500px for a few months, they cannot even manage to do album privacy correctly.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#87

Post by zanny » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:57 AM UTC

DannoHung wrote: post #86

PhilWright wrote: post #82

Whenever I see a struggling company like this I ask myself the simple question. If the company didn't exist, would there be a need to create it? In the case of Yahoo I think the answer is no. If they disappeared tomorrow there would be no compelling reason for others to try and fill the gap it left behind. Hell, I doubt most people would even noticed they had gone. So they need to build a new business from the dying…

I object only on the grounds that Flickr is the only good photo site for people who really care about their photos. Having tried to use 500px for a few months, they cannot even manage to do album privacy correctly.

I just use imgur. Am I doing something wrong?

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#88

Post by remarkEon » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:57 AM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #68

chollida1 wrote: post #24

Sometimes, well it actually happens quite often, a company just runs its course and is better off just winding things up and closing shop. IMHO it looks like the likely end game for Yahoo is: - taken private by a Private Equity firm - divest Yahoo Japan and Alibaba - any divisions that aren't making an actual profit, (tumblr, flickr, fantasy sports, etc, will be shopped around and sold if possible, or shuttered if no…

> What is Yahoo's area of expertise that they make money at and can do better that Google, Microsoft, Facebook or Amazon? Fantasy sports. In much the same way Sega pivoted, Yahoo could.

Sega?

Edit: is there a story I don't know about? I know a reasonable amount about gaming but I guess I'm drawing a blank on a successful Sega pivot. I remember some cool ads when I was a kid, I suppose.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#89

Post by akg_67 » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:58 AM UTC

PhilWright wrote: post #82

Whenever I see a struggling company like this I ask myself the simple question. If the company didn't exist, would there be a need to create it? In the case of Yahoo I think the answer is no. If they disappeared tomorrow there would be no compelling reason for others to try and fill the gap it left behind. Hell, I doubt most people would even noticed they had gone. So they need to build a new business from the dying…

> If the company didn't exist, would there be a need to create it?

Should I guess that you were not adult yet when Yahoo! started?

When Yahoo! was founded, there was a need for WWW site directory, and Yahoo! filled that vacuum. It was the go to place for finding the sites in your area of interest.

Some of the sections of Yahoo! for example: Finance and Sports are still go to places for me and I am sure countless others. I haven't come across any other sites that even come close to those two sections on Yahoo!. Even today, there is no single directory site with curated list of relevant sites, news and information from such sites. So, I will say there is still a need for a Yahoo! like portal with curated information. What Google spits out in search and associated sites is SEO crap. Google has inability to differentiate among 14,777 news articles on a topic and which one is the most relevant and comprehensive.

IMO, Yahoo! need to go back to their roots which was portal of curated information. If they wait too long and the direction FB is heading, they will fill the void left by Yahoo!.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#90

Post by philip1209 » Wed, Nov 25, 2015, 4:59 AM UTC

I feel like Netflix understands how to keep morale high, and that's paying top of market and firing people who don't deserve that pay. Free lunches, massage rooms, etc are all marginally important compared to good pay. Perhaps Yahoo could innovate further by offering private offices.

This isn't the panacea for innovation or a large company, but if the goal is to raise morale and hire top talent - I know those two things combined would get some experienced candidates to consider joining Yahoo.