Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer Pushes for Mobile, Snubs Geolocation in First Earnings Call
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer told shareholders on her first quarterly earnings call that she wants to focus on mobile, pare down the company's activities in foreign markets with weak growth and forego any geolocational services, a hallmark of her time at Google. She said the company, which has splintered its mobile brands across numerous applications and channels, was "uniquely positioned" to launch an easily navigated Yahoo.com for mobile. "Our top priority is a focused, coherent mobile strategy," Mayer said, offering few specifics. "The way we all consume content has dramatically shifted." Days after Mayer shuttered Yahoo's South Korean division, she said the international business going forward would focus on markets with higher ceilings. She said the growth forecast for the Seoul-based business was weak.
"International markets need growth," she said, adding that Yahoo's strategy will be to "stay in markets we see an opportunity for growth in."
She also said that geolocational services -- applications like Foursquare or Yelp -- are a huge investment and are too "hard to do well." Locational services were a staple of Mayer's tenure at Google, where she helped spearhead the company's Places service. "It's very hard to do local well," she said. "It takes a lot of time and investment." Asked how her administration would differ from the stated goals of her predecessors, the recently named CEO said she planned to focus on improving Yahoo's core products, which she defined as its search engine and display advertising.
Related Articles:
Yahoo Earnings Fall 26% in Q3; CEO Search Still Under Way (Updated)
