Yahoo is making a comeback. Or so the Q1 2013 numbers say. Their stock is up 50 percent since July 2012. And their earnings delivered more profit than in Q1 2012. But not all the news was good: display ads, and the revenue they produce, fell 11 percent. So there’s still more?work to do.
This is where CEO Marissa Mayer’s chain reaction comes in. That first?link was changing the work culture; this included insisting people coming back to work in the office. Now it’s a top place to work. This leads to the second link: getting talent. Applications and resumes have tripled during Mayer’s tenure.??During Q1 2013, 14?percent of?those hired were those who left the company and returned. Now this leads to the?links?three and four: building better products and reaching customers better. According to Mayer herself, by 2015, there will be more use of hand held devices than PC’s. Of the 700 million users, nearly half are subscribed on a smartphone or something similar (iPod touch).
Will the comeback continue? It sounds like they’re on the right track. Talent is coming back. Plus, talent is so abundant they can be selective in their choosing. This is always a good thing. They are trying to create apps, particularly for small devices. Yahoo execs believe this rebuilding process will take years. But there is already signs of growth now. One way they can speed up the comeback is better news articles. They’re becoming better at this, but what I’d like to see is less celebrity gossip and fluff and more hard news. I mean news you won’t hear anywhere else, like that 7.8?earthquake on the Pakistan/Iran border. What are some other ways Yahoo can improve?
Do you have the new Twitter music app yet? Twitter is launching a?new and uncomplicated?music app this weekend. Too bad you have to be a celebrity to have it now. You’ll have to wait until next week at least.
As of this weekend, it’s being introduced at the Coachella festival. This app has a ‘suggested’ tab for song recommendations, ‘now playing’ tab to link songs listened to by your followers, ‘popular’, for the most trending songs, and ’emerging’ to promote rising artist or help get your name out there if you’re a struggling artist. Ryan Seacrest is already tweeting good things about it. But that’s just one tweet from one man. There are some saying they absolutely hate the app.
And that’s the gamble here. Should you really release an app or anything else to celebrities before releasing it to the general public? I have mixed feelings about that. I understand why Twitter is doing it. If Ryan Seacrest and other famous people like it, they’re banking you will too. But what if they hate it, and I’m guessing some do. What if the haters tweet about how awful this app is? I’m sure people will avoid the app if that happens. And that’s the double-edged sword.?What will the next A-lister say about the upcoming Twitter music app?
Online music service?Spotify?has done well for itself.??Since it’s launch in 2008, Spotify has acquired 24 million users and 6 million subscribers. But why stop there? Starting tonight Spotify is taking over You Tube.
Spotify hopes you ‘follow’ Phoenix, as in use the Spotify follow feature to see what your friends are listening to. Personally, I think it’s a much smarter ad move than spending tens of million in?TV ads, like they did when they featured commercials during the?NBC talent show?The Voice. ?This You Tube campaign: $400,000. So obviously, the Phoenix campaign makes more economic sense. I think it makes more common sense too. Yes, The Voice has a huge following. Yes, it’s one of the most popular TV shows today. But it’s only on a few months of the year, and even then, only one hour a night. You Tube is there 24 hours a day, they’re are always people on the site. I hope this ad campaign work. I wonder where Phoenix is going next.
Have you ever made a You Tube video? How many hits does it have? How many subscribers do you have? In the earlier days of this social medium, they had an ‘Original Channel’ funding initiative. Hundreds of millions of dollars, much of it given to major media companies, were distributed to launch their own channels.
The first lesson is: This isn’t TV. Many channels, like Crash Course and SciShow, tried going that route, putting in lots of camera work, big sets and a large cast. Their results?backfired, and it could take years for their creators to earn that money back. The best channels, like SouceFed, were low budgeted, realistic, and took only a small number of people to produce.
Other lessons: You don’t need a lot of money to have a good You Tube video or channel. You don’t need a lot of good looking people either. Remember the top 10 video list I posted a couple of weeks ago? Most of these men and women can hardly pass as supermodels. But they said or did something that connected with Joe and Jane; that’s why they got so many hits. I think people are fed up with Wall St., Washington and Hollywood these days. So of course they’re going to gravitate to people who are closer to them. Which would you rather see: the rich get richer, the?pretty?get prettier, more?political fighting?or a homeless man who performs a kind deed get housing?
Now, You Tube advertisers are using much smaller grants, and those go to people who have experience making online videos. So it looks like they’re getting it. But are the video producers? Personally, I say start doing them yourself. With 2010s technology, it’s easier and cheaper to make an online video than ever before. If it’s good enough, it will get the attention it deserves and the money and ads will come. Will I be seeing your video one day?
The next time you go on Ebay or Amazon, some of your purchase may go to your state capitol. The US Senate voted convincingly, 75 yea, 24 no, to give states more authority to collect taxes off purchases made out of state online.
Not only are the Feds strapped for cash, most states are too. I read somewhere around $20 Billion in?state sales?taxes go uncollected by Internet transactions. In many states, online purchasers are ‘supposed’ to pay?a sales tax when they click purchase. Whether it happens or not, that’s another story. ??When the national debt is 17 trillion, 20 billion doesn’t sound like much. But when you bring it to state and local?economies, that is a fortune!
Here is the most startling part of these potential levies: Both parties sponsor this! Two of the main sponsors are Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. Twenty-six Republicans and 49 Democrats supported the?state tax measure.?Maybe we can all get along. Their argument is that levies will give retail stores and small and local business an advantage. But opponents say it will entice more big businesses to go overseas, where sales taxes can’t be enforced. Those opponents have one point: More outsourcing is the last thing our economy needs right now.
What is your argument? I think state levies are a good ides. Not only can it help local businesses, that state revenue can improve our schools, create jobs and erase some of our state deficit. Then again, the naysayers have a point. I’m sure there are many in corporate America that’s just looking for an excuse to send more jobs overseas. But I say the good outweighs the bad. What do you say?
According to Google, You Tube now has one billion users on a monthly basis. And if international census takers are right, the Earth’s population stands out at over seven billion. Yep, 15% of the world’s population use Google monthly, if not daily. No wonder why people are flocking to it.
It’s become a part of our daily culture. Sweet Georgia Brown’s “Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That” has become the quote of the age. We’ve learned dances like Gangham Style and Harlem Shake.? Don’t have the money or backing to make a movie? Just throw it up on You Tube, and who knows, a major producer might see it. It’s given a voice to the voiceless,?like the uprisings in the?Middle East .? It’s exposed our bad?behavior. Remember the case of the elderly bus monitor bullied by junior high students??And don’t party too hard. Your actions might get caught on You Tube for all the media and ?world to see. Just ask New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
What next then? You Tube still has work to do. It’s still censored in much of China. It’s trying to expand to the Middle East, like the very conservative Saudi Arabia. It’s not the first social media site to reach a billion. As of today’s posting, Facebook has 1.06 billion regulars, more than what You Tube has.
What’s your favorite use for You Tube? It’s my favorite source to get news. Don’t look at me like that; over 70% of Americans don’t trust mainstream media. I’m addicted to old commercials and I thank them for bringing those back. Surely you’ve seen those cute videos like babies talking and pets interacting? What’s your You Tube guilty pleasure?
