Yahoo: Media business faces multiple challenges

In the ongoing 2014CES (Las Vegas International Consumer Electronics Show), Yahoo CEO Marissa (Marissa Mayer) announced a few heavy news: last fall Yahoo mobile users for the first time to break the 400 million mark; Launch mobile end predictive Search service , the acquisition of Android mobile phone intelligent main screen service developer Aviate, the launch of "Yahoo News Digest" (Digest), the introduction of smart Television (Yahoo Smart TV) applications. At CES, Mayer looked smug and radiant. This is the impression she always gives when she is CEO. Yahoo's share price gave her the best reason: from the beginning of this year, less than 20 dollars rose to now more than 40 U.S. dollars. When she took office, Yahoo had less than 200 million active users on the mobile side, and now doubled. Under the leadership of the 40-year-old Beauty CEO, Yahoo seems to have a youthful glow. But Yahoo still faces deep-seated problems, focusing on its business structure. The problem persists, and so far, Mayer has not managed to solve the problem. Search business "stones" in the search field, Yahoo entered earlier than Google, but in the end was Google in search advertising mode detonated the market. Google has not only defeated Yahoo in search, but also become the gateway to the Internet, divided the traffic of Yahoo, and let the portal era become history. Yahoo has given up the search business? In a one-hour speech at the Las Vegas Hotel Theater, Mayer said, search and video, digital magazines and communications are now the four main areas of concern for Yahoo. But how do you search? Do you want to compete directly with Google? At the time of March 2012, Mayer was still in Google, when Yahoo and Microsoft and AOL signed an online advertising agreement, intended to create an advertising alliance to counter Google. Microsoft offers search engines, while Yahoo and AOL provide traffic. At the time, analysts said the move was aimed at countering Google. But by February 2013, when Ms. Mayer was in the company of Yahoo, Yahoo announced an online advertising alliance with Google. Yahoo agreed to use Google's online advertising positioning technology to make its own advertising display more accurate. The relationship between Yahoo and Google has become more "subtle" as Google "digs" Mayer and announces cooperation with Google. In fact, Ms. Mayer did not focus on the business adjustment after taking office, and Google's relationship is not the focus of her consideration. For there is a more pressing problem than that which lies before her. Ms. Mayer's predecessor, Scott Thompson, has laid off more than 2000 people during the helm of Yahoo, the equivalent of 14% of the company's total workforce, in an effort to reduce the company's human costs and boost its performance. But from the reaction of the capital market, the move was unsuccessful, with Yahoo's share price hovering at $14 to $16 per share. After Ms. Mayer takes office, the first priority is to boost employee morale. Instead of continuing to cut jobs, she launched a series of acquisitionsIncorporate a large number of startups into the company, including Tumblr, the world's largest lightweight blog site. Ms. Mayer's acquisition after taking office (Tencent technology map) Mayer believes that Yahoo's biggest problem is brain drain. The acquisition has allowed Yahoo to acquire a large number of engineering and technical talent, while increasing the company's exposure and attractiveness to talent, as well as its ability to layout in the mobile internet sector. In fact, in addition to the above, these acquisitions also show Ms. Mayer's thinking about the search business. If Yahoo has a chance to make a breakthrough in its search business, chances are that it will never be on the traditional internet, but on the mobile internet.