Strategic Management - Yahoo Case Study
Executive Summary
Yahoo is one of the World Wide Web’s (WWW) leading search providers, and most prominent web portal. It was established in April of 1994 and was originally called “Jerry’s Guide to the WWW” (Hill & Jones, 2008). Today Yahoo employs around 11,000 people and, in 2006, averaged 144 million views per day (Hill & Jones, 2008).
The company has achieved its success by offering its users a variety of different services including: email, instant messenger, search, news, sports, stock quotes, and entertainment. Currently, analysts are unsure of Yahoo’s actual role as it functions as a myriad of purposes (Hill & Jones, 2008).
Despite Yahoo’s past success, the future is unclear about what success they will have as they seem to have lost sight of their mission and original business model – the search function. Also, with Google garnering more advertising revenues and popularity among both internet users and companies wanting to advertise, it seems as though Yahoo will have an increasingly more difficult time competing.
Introduction
Yahoo is one of the top search providers of the WWW and most prominent web portal, with over 144 million views per day (in 2006) (Hill & Jones, 2008). However, due to the competitive nature of the dot-com industry, and the emergence of Google, Yahoo is in need of a clearer business model that will take them through the next decade.
This review will look at Yahoo’s past and current situation beginning with a brief overview of the company. This will be followed by an evaluation of the external forces at play, specifically the macro and competitive forces that shape the competitive dot-com search engine industry. Lastly, the internal environment will be analyzed.
This document is based on the case Yahoo (Hill & Jones, 2008, p.C102-C114) with no access to financial statements.
Company Overview
Yahoo originally started out as a way for David Filo and Jerry Yang, the founders of Yahoo, to remember their favourite sites – more
Yahoo is one of the World Wide Web’s (WWW) leading search providers, and most prominent web portal. It was established in April of 1994 and was originally called “Jerry’s Guide to the WWW” (Hill & Jones, 2008). Today Yahoo employs around 11,000 people and, in 2006, averaged 144 million views per day (Hill & Jones, 2008).
The company has achieved its success by offering its users a variety of different services including: email, instant messenger, search, news, sports, stock quotes, and entertainment. Currently, analysts are unsure of Yahoo’s actual role as it functions as a myriad of purposes (Hill & Jones, 2008).
Despite Yahoo’s past success, the future is unclear about what success they will have as they seem to have lost sight of their mission and original business model – the search function. Also, with Google garnering more advertising revenues and popularity among both internet users and companies wanting to advertise, it seems as though Yahoo will have an increasingly more difficult time competing.
Introduction
Yahoo is one of the top search providers of the WWW and most prominent web portal, with over 144 million views per day (in 2006) (Hill & Jones, 2008). However, due to the competitive nature of the dot-com industry, and the emergence of Google, Yahoo is in need of a clearer business model that will take them through the next decade.
This review will look at Yahoo’s past and current situation beginning with a brief overview of the company. This will be followed by an evaluation of the external forces at play, specifically the macro and competitive forces that shape the competitive dot-com search engine industry. Lastly, the internal environment will be analyzed.
This document is based on the case Yahoo (Hill & Jones, 2008, p.C102-C114) with no access to financial statements.
Company Overview
Yahoo originally started out as a way for David Filo and Jerry Yang, the founders of Yahoo, to remember their favourite sites – more
References: Eventbrite. (2012). Yahoo! Open Hack India 2012. Retrieved February 28, 2013, from Eventbrite: http://openhackindia2012.eventbrite.com/ Hill, C. W., & Jones, G. R. (2008). Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, Eighth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Yahoo Inc. (2012, December 11). Corporate Governance Guidelines. Retrieved January 6, 2013, from Yahoo! Investor Relations: http://investor.yahoo.net/documentdisplay.cfm?DocumentID=11713 Yahoo Inc. (2013). Benefits. Retrieved February 28, 2013, from Yahoo! Careers - United States: http://us.careers.yahoo.com/benefits/all/lang/en Yahoo Inc. (2013). Investor FAQs. Retrieved December 29, 2012, from Yahoo! Investor Relations: http://investor.yahoo.net/faq.cfm