The History And Background Of Yahoo Marketing Essay

The History And Background Of Yahoo Marketing Essay A company symbol is regarded as a unique mark or design that identifies a certain firm. In most cases, a company symbol tends to be more important than the assets of a company when it comes to the companys identification by the public. All of the international as well as regional business firms, including Yahoo, tend to have their specific company symbols, which helps them for public identification. For instance, the company symbol for Yahoo is Yahoo! (Mortensen p25). The key executives of Yahoo are committed business individuals who ensure that the firm runs smoothly in the business fraternity. Yahoos key executives include Marissa Mayer who is the Chief Executive Officer, the President, as well as the Director of the company. David Filo is the Co-Founder and Chief of Yahoo!. Kenneth Goldman holds the key position of the Chief Financial Officer. Ron Brachman is the Chief Scientist and Head of Yahoo! Labs. Finally, there is Henrique De Castro who holds the position of Chief Operating Officer at Yahoo! (Snell p31). Yahoo is an American internet corporation, which has its headquarters in Sunnyvale California. The firm was found by two individuals, David Filo and Jerry Yang, in 1994, and was incorporated in the business world in March the year 1995. Yahoo tends to generate its revenue from the display of text-based links to advertisers Websites, which is regarded as search advertising, from the display of graphical advertisements, which is regarded as display advertising, as well as from other relevant sources (Snell p33). As an internet corporation, Yahoo offers a number of products and services to its esteemed customers. The company has a strong technology and insights that helps it in the delivery of digital content and experiences across the globe and communication devices. The firm tends to provide online services and properties to its users, as well as marketing services aimed to connect with Yahoo! users. This is done through a distribution of network of third party entities. Through its search engine, Yahoo! Search, and its web portal, the firm provides services such as advertising, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Directory, fantasy sports, online mapping, social media website, Yahoo! News, as well as Yahoo! Groups. The firm has properties, which are tailored to users in certain international markets. The properties include social networking websites (Meme and Wretch), and Yahoo! Homepage (Mortensen p69). The services offered to users of Yahoo are divided under three categories. The categories include Media, Communications and Communities as well as Search and Marketplaces. Under the Communications and Communities category, the firm offers Yahoo! Messenger, Flickr, Yahoo! Answers, Yahoo! Mail, Connected TV, and Yahoo! Groups. Services offered under this particular category enable the users to organize themselves in groups and share photos, common interests, as well as knowledge (Snell p47). The Search and Marketplaces category tends to answer the information needs of the users through the search results pages and across Yahoo!. The search offerings of the company include Yahoo! Local, and Yahoo! Search. These offerings are free of charge for the users and help them discover new content on the internet. On the other hand, the Marketplaces offerings include Yahoo! Small Business, Yahoo! Real Estate, Yahoo! Travel, Yahoo! Shopping, and Yahoo! Autos. With these properties, the company enables users to research and review specific topics or fields of interest and exchange information with parties of similar interest (Snell p49). The final category is the Media whose services are tend to engage the Yahoo users with online services and content especially on the web. The services provided under this category are free of charge to the users. Services provided include My Yahoo!, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Homepage, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Entertainment, Yahoo! Sports, and Yahoo! Contributor Network (Snell p48). In the internet business, Yahoo tends to have a number of competitors who keep the company on toes in terms of performance and service provision to the customers. The main competitors for Yahoo! include Google Inc., Acxiom Corporation, Agilysys, Inc., AOL Inc., Adobe Systems Inc, Facebook Inc, and Callidus Software, Inc. among others. These competitors tend to compete in terms of service provision to the internet users. The top competitors of the named ones for Yahoo are Google Inc., and AOL Inc (Mortensen p72). The key executives in the firm head the structure of the organization. The head of the structure is the Chief Executive Officer who is also the president of the firm. The Chief Executive Officer usually does most of the managerial activities and decisions in the firm. Other key executives who makes the top of the organization structure includes the Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief of Yahoo, and Chief Scientist and Head of Yahoo Labs. The growth and development of the firm majorly depends on these individuals (Associated Press). The management of the company mainly lies in the hands of the Board of Directors and the Key Executive members of Yahoo. The management team of the company tends to manage business at the company by ensuring that employees perform their duties as scheduled, and that the users of Yahoo receive the best products and services in the market (IFM). In 2011 September, the management team headed by the chair of the firm decided to fire the then Chief Executive Officer, Bartz. This decision was consequential in terms of business for Yahoo when a number of potential buyers came in with the idea of buying parts or rather the whole firm. In September 2012, the current Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo made a decision of closing the deal the company had with Alibaba in her managerial post. This particular deal; was controversial and it earned the company a negative image in the business fraternity. The closure of the deal affected the companys financial function in a positive way by giving the company 625 million US Dollars (IFM). In relation to sales and earnings of the key financial finding for Yahoo is that the company has been able to grow its bottom line. In the 2012, despite the stagnant revenue growth, the companys bottom line was able to grow from 1.0 billion US Dollars to 3.9 US Dollars. In the earning statement of 2012 delivered by the companys Chief Executive Officer, she stated that the firm was able to show a revenue growth in 2012 for the first time in a period of four years. The variables that tend to affect the earnings of the company include revenue, earnings per share, price to earnings ratio, and return on equity. The variables tend to change from time to time and this affects the earnings of the company (Mortensen p56). There are a number of activities and decisions that the company did to affect its financials. For instance, in 2012 during the quarter that the company made progress in its financials, it is indicated that various activities took place. The CEO stated that the executive team was reshuffled leading to its growth, there was the launching of unbelievable Yahoo! mail and Flickr mobile experiences, as well as signing of major business partnerships with the CBS Television, and NBC Sport (Snell p38). There are also a number of decisions that the company made which led to negative impact of its financials. They include signing a business deal with the Alibaba group, creation of the Yahoo! search image in 2006 that brought up sexually explicit images, and rejection of Microsoft Corporations bid of acquiring the firm in 2008 on the basis that Microsoft had undervalued it. These decisions led to the fall of the companys financials (Mortensen p81). It is with no doubt that global issues are affecting business at Yahoo. For instance, there are various global issues that can be discussed. Advancements in technology is one of the global issues that affect business at the company since it is an internet company. Many technologically advanced companies around the globe are coming up with advanced internet service provision, and this tends to keep Yahoo on toes (Belew and Joel p35). Another global issue of concern is the fact that majority of people around the globe communicate through the social medias in the internet. Since the company offers such services, increased numbers of subscribers on social networks around the globe affect business operations at the company. The company has to provide the best services to its customers (Belew and Joel p33). Challenges that Yahoo! has been facing over the years in business operation is a relevant topic that was left out. One of the main challenges that the company has been facing in the past years is poor management. For instance, until the appointment of Mayer as the Chief Executive Officer of the firm, the company had plunged into poor leadership. This is clearly indicated by the poor financial reports the company used to report in the past years (Belew and Joel p56). Another challenge that the company faced in the past, and was a great loss is the fact that the company had signed a business deal with Alibaba Group and that it had created a Yahoo! Search image that showed sexually explicit images. The company received a lot of criticism from the public, whereby it lost some of its customers (Mortensen p43).