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Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

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Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#121

Post by christinecha »

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 think that this is definitely the ideal move under different circumstances. But that wouldn't be a viable solution for Yahoo.

Currently, even at its 'dying' state, Yahoo has huge traffic from extremely loyal users who are mostly in the higher income (30+) age range. To dump that out the window would be an incredibly irresponsible business move. It's easy for a small, young company to pivot, but an old giant like Yahoo has to move slowly.

That being said, I think it would be a great move to really accept the growing age and therefore unique needs of this internet company rather than trying to follow new trends. That's truly their strongest leverage material at this point. Can they reinvent how the Internet is used by people over 40?

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#122

Post by phamilton »

datashovel wrote: post #109

Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that Yahoo took a chance on Marissa Mayer. The thing that I can't overlook is none of the stories I have read indicate this was a matter of a perfect vision that was just poorly executed. All of the stories I've read lead me to believe there has been a somewhat muddled vision and less than spectacular execution on top of that. Then again it was only mid-2012 that she was appointed…

I'm not sure that "perfect vision that was just poorly executed" is worth much. If execution is the hard part, then any sort of vision that didn't include execution is just nonsense.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#123

Post by setpatchaddress »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #64
SwellJoe wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a strong cult of personality around our industry, in general. The belief that a special CEO can make a billion dollar company. It ignores the role of luck, the other employees (sometimes there are thousands of employees, as in the case of Yahoo!, and every single one of them can make or break the company in small ways every day), changes in the market, etc. Steve Jobs is the epitome of the Magic CEO archetype…

I wouldn't call NeXT an expensive failure, especially seeing how it laid the framework for Apple's current success. It is hard to say what would have happened if Steve Jobs stayed at Apple in the 80s....he was never actually CEO before 1997 (see http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/08/25/a-look-at-apples-ceos... ).

But NeXT was a big failure commercially. And the software light at the end of the tunnel in 1996 was WebObjects, not OpenStep. If Apple hadn't bought them, they'd have eventually been reduced to WebObjects, Inc, in all but name.

Steve would have destroyed Apple completely had he been CEO prior to his experiences running NeXT and Pixar. He almost did anyway -- read up on the stories about how he treated the Apple II division -- the only part of the company that made money up until after the point Steve had left.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#124

Post by vonklaus »

akg_67 wrote: post #116
vonklaus wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I haven't come across any other sites that even come close to [sports and finance] on Yahoo! You haven't been able to find any other sites focusing on finance or sports on the internet? To be clear, yahoo does a decent job curating finance and sports sections, but it is extremely trivial to find sites similar to Yahoo. Here are a few, I found: Finance: ======== Marketwatch[0], is very similar to yahoo finance. Owne…

I was pretty sure someone will make a comment like yours. You didn't disappoint. You want to me to go to 3 different sites for Finance when I can get everything at Yahoo! You want me to go to 4 different sites for Sports when I can get everything at Yahoo! Can you get Bleacher Report articles on ESPN? I will suggest comparing Yahoo! Finance and Sports with the sites you mentioned. You might be surprised that most sit…

I meant each site is as good as yahoo! not that you would have to go to each one, but I don't really care about sports. The finance sites are all drop in replacements and better than yahoo finance.

As for sports, if you want the same information but the caveat you seem hung up on is that it must come from different domains, just go to a reddit like aggregator. I get it, you like yahoo. Yahoo does a good job, and I also like yahoo. My point is it is patently rediculous to claim there is no other space on the internet that is close enough to Yahoo sports or finance.

Companies don't survive being ~10% better than the competition, and the stuff you are talking about sounds like it is moire about habit than anything tangible.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#125

Post by nickpsecurity »

Animats wrote: post #113
akg_67 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 othe…

"When Yahoo! was founded, there was a need for WWW site directory, and Yahoo! filled that vacuum. ... IMO, Yahoo! need to go back to their roots which was portal of curated information." Yahoo's Directory was shut down December 27, 2014. What's left of Yahoo does some photo storage, some email, some video streaming, some finance and sports reporting, and some ad serving. They also resell Bing search. All those things…

Beat me to it again. ;) Directory was my favorite part of Yahoo. People giving me the links I need in an organized fashion. It was one of the early forms of online serendipity: look for one thing you need or want only to find a bunch of other pieces of info with benefit.

Many forms of it now but I still think Directory could be revived. Maybe exceed the old one with curators for high profile topics plus crowd input. Some hybrid model.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#126

Post by emcrazyone »

christinecha wrote: post #121
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 think that this is definitely the ideal move under different circumstances. But that wouldn't be a viable solution for Yahoo. Currently, even at its 'dying' state, Yahoo has huge traffic from extremely loyal users who are mostly in the higher income (30+) age range. To dump that out the window would be an incredibly irresponsible business move. It's easy for a small, young company to pivot, but an old giant like Ya…

"Yahoo has huge traffic from extremely loyal users who are mostly in the higher income (30+) age range."

Is that statement a fact? If so, care to substantiate it.

I work for one of the largest companies in the world and we no longer use Yahoo; we use too. Every year in the US, the Superbowl pulls in HUGE dollars in advertisements. I have to plan for this every year and have been doing this for the past 10 years.

Around Superbowl time, we increase our public facing web server presence due to the increase load. It use to be that Yahoo represented more than 50% of the clicks but that is less than 10% as of last year.

I work for a fortune-5 company. We use Akami to help distribute the load. I wish I could publish more info like the data and the company but unfortunately I'm not legally permitted.

I will say this: I doubt Yahoo Ad revenue will return at least from my perspective and what I've seen over the past 7-10 years. More and more of our Ad refs come from youtube.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#127

Post by SwellJoe »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #80
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't call NeXT an expensive failure, especially seeing how it laid the framework for Apple's current success. It is hard to say what would have happened if Steve Jobs stayed at Apple in the 80s....he was never actually CEO before 1997 (see http://thenextweb.com/apple/2011/08/25/a-look-at-apples-ceos... ).

NeXT effectively replaced Apple's leadership post-1996. Arguably NeXT affected the single most successful 'reverse takeover' of all time.

Still too complicated of a story and too much tied up with time and place and team for it to be "Steve Jobs did this". And, there were many points during his story where he was catching more flack than Marissa Mayer has ever had directed her way, and probably ever will get. Kinda reinforces my point that CEOs get too much credit and too much blame.

But, you're right, I guess. Steve Jobs' life is a long story arc that ends in massive success, with many smaller successes and failures along the path. In all cases, the credit and blame should (in a just world) be distributed a bit more widely than it is. Apple without Wozniak (or any of the several dozen other superstar engineers that Apple attracted in the early years) would not have become Apple.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#128

Post by IndianAstronaut »

smegel wrote: post #117

Google is getting platform locking, much like Microsoft. Even if Yahoo did come out with a world class Docs, or Email, or Youtube, or Blogger, or Sites, or AppEngine - I would still stick with the Google equivalent because I am all connected. I sign into Chrome or an Android device and everything just works and syncs. I am locked into Google and I don't even have a Google+ account.

All Yahoo has to do is commit to no tracking of users and I would switch in a heartbeat.

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#129

Post by crucifiction »

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.

SmugMug

Re: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Faces Morale Challenge

#130

Post by pjzedalis »

Marissa comes from Google so I'd like to see more developer focus. Here are some ideas:

- Buy Joyent. Get's you into the cloud game and you gain SmartOS and Node chops.

- Buy BitTorrent and capitalize on its growth and the new sync technology.

- Make YUI popular again in the responsive web era. Tumblr, Flickr, Develpr?

- Probably should stop trying to out-Netflix Netflix. Community was never going to work but I understand the thinking.

- Somebody is going to buy Groove Music (Xbox Music). I hope it's not Yahoo.

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