Making sense of it all (Yahoo!)

Article Type: Abstracts From: Strategic Direction, Volume 25, Issue 7

Ramsay F. Marketing, 21 January 2009, Start page: 22, No. of pages: 2

Purpose – to present a profile of Kristof Fahy, vice-president of marketing, Yahoo! Europe. Design/methodology/approach – outlines the challenges facing Yahoo!. Findings – Yahoo!’s simple founding premise of making sense of the web has been lost in the growth of the business from a two-man backroom project in 1994 to a company with a user base of 500m and its struggle to fend off Google’s dominance is making it difficult for the company to find a voice for all its services. Comments on the spirit of openness that is emerging in its third-party applications, the offer of access to its search infrastructure to other web sites and its communications strategy but contends that Yahoo! now needs to look at what its story is, the people it needs to talk to and the best communication tools to do that. Adds that it is battling with soft ad revenues, ongoing speculation about an acquisition by Microsoft and the disintegration of a planned agreement with Google to strengthen its position in online advertising. Originality/value – states that Yahoo! has become a victim of its own success, growing rapidly and having to reassess what made it successful in the first place. ISSN: 0025-3650 Reference: 38AE549

Keywords: Internet, Marketing strategy, Yahoo