Introduction
As a global internet services provider, Yahoo can be considered one of the most widely known companies in the world. This technology company helps Internet users navigate the World Wide Web with the help of a variety of features. For instance, it offers a search engine, an email service, a directory, and a news branch. In spite of the fact that its major competitor, Google, has managed to take a larger share of the market, Yahoo, an acronym to “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle,” is still tremendously popular in different parts of the world. Currently, everyone is able to access the Yahoo! Website for free, as it is funded by the advertisers who invest financial resources in the promotion of products and services. Thus, taking into consideration that Yahoo provides numerous essential services, it can be perceived as a successful multinational technology company.
Founding
Initially, this company was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994 with the intention to combine their favorite websites into a single system. In fact, these individuals were studying at Stanford University when the idea of a human-edited web directory was created. There were numerous debates regarding the best name for this site, although “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” was selected as the final draft (Yin et al., 2016). At the same time, considering the website was growing significantly in size and the number of links from which it was composed, Yang and Filo started thinking about renaming it. As a result, “Yahoo” was selected to be the name of the future global Internet services provider (Dewhurst et al., 2013). Yang and Filo were frequently described as being blunt, which is why they decided to name their website in such a rude and uncouth way.
Expansion
As the website was growing, it became too large to remain on the Stanford University computer system. Therefore, it has considerably expanded starting from 1995. Yang and Filo were selling advertisement spaces on their website with the purpose to make a profit and fund the further growth of the company. Nevertheless, the analysis of the activity of Yahoo has demonstrated that the involvement of other highly qualified specialists was required. Accordingly, a duo from Stanford University offered their friend, presently known as Tim Koogle, to become CEO of this organization. In order to improve organizational performance, Koogle employed Jeff Mallett as COO. Before joining Yahoo, Mallet had already gained experience in sales, marketing, and business development. Subsequently, the cooperation between Google and Mallet has resulted in the transformation of a small collection of interesting websites into a large player in the search engine industry.
In other words, Mallet and Koogle have started taking appropriate measures to put the ideas created by Yang and Filo into practice. For instance, banner advertising deals were used as an effective tool of cooperation with advertisers. Moreover, Koogle and Mallet began to cooperate with the websites that aimed to increase their own traffic. There were numerous companies with high-quality products and services seeking the best ways to promote those goods. Yahoo was considered the most effective tool to achieve this goal in terms of traffic increase. Even though the revenues of Yahoo were estimated at nearly $1 million in 1995, this organization became a large competitor to other Internet technology companies (Yin et al., 2016). Hence, the combination of interesting banner advertising and distribution deals can be regarded as the main force for the promotion of Yahoo on the international market.
The Birth of a Brand Name: 1996
As a public company, Yahoo has managed to increase revenues significantly in the next several years. For example, its shares of the stock were initially offered for $13, although this price has tripled on the first day of trade (Yin et al., 2016). However, it was only the beginning of a considerable process of Yahoo development. In 1996, its stock price rose 600%, thereby demonstrating the impact this company has on the current needs of Internet users (Yin et al., 2016). In order to improve organizational effectiveness, Koogle, Mallet, and Karen Edwards, marketing specialists, made a risky decision to invest the main part of financial resources gained by the activity of the organization into a large advertising campaign on television. Despite the fact that this deal could have resulted in a failure, the advertisement contributed to the birth of a brand name “Yahoo ” on the national level. Consequently, another shift in the development of the company was made.
In addition to investing money in advertising campaigns on television, representatives of Yahoo paid a vast amount of attention to other promotion tools. For instance, they aimed to place the logo and brand name of the organization in the most popular places in the country. Americans had the opportunity to increase the level of awareness of services offered by Yahoo through advertising during sporting events, concerts, and construction sites. This means of communication with the audience has also been associated with considerable success for the company. Thus, Yahoo became a significant competitor to other Internet services companies, such as America Online, Prodigy, and Microsoft Network. Simultaneously, Yahoo was considered an innovative organization in the 1990s, as no other companies were providing such a vast amount of Internet services. Currently, it engages in entrepreneurial initiatives, such as unlimited talk, text, and data for $40 per month (Yin et al., 2016).
Acquisitions and Further Expansion
To make Yahoo even more popular among Internet users, it was decided to improve this website. For example, chat areas, Yellow Pages, online shopping, and news were added to the main services offered by this organization. As a result, in 1997, approximately 65 million pages of electronic data were viewed with the help of this search engine each day (Yin et al., 2016). The mix of unique services provided by Yahoo has helped this technology company to earn a total of $7 billion at the time. In other words, its market valuation was higher than the market valuation of its main competitors. Furthermore, multiple contracts were signed by representatives of Yahoo with other companies to increase the number of individuals interested in the Internet services of this Internet services provider (Cohn et al., 2008). For instance, MCI WorldCom, AT&T Inc., and Japan’s Softbank Corporation were the main business partners of Koogle and Mallet at the time.
Current Trends
The satisfaction level of Internet users has always been the main priority of Yahoo, which is why it still can be considered one of the main players in terms of web service providers. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, this company’s websites are currently visited by over 700 Internet users each month (Yin et al., 2016). In spite of the fact that there are a variety of competitors that have replaced Yahoo as the leader in the search engine industry, it is used by people from different parts of the world. At the present time, the company’s main competitors are Microsoft, Bloomberg, Yandex, Business Insider, Google, and Baidu. Nevertheless, Yahoo managed to earn nearly $200 million in one second, which demonstrates that services offered by this organization are still relevant (Yin et al., 2016). It is predicted that Yahoo will be one of the primary web services providers in the world in the next decade.
The popularity of this company can also be explained by its focus on different nationalities. In fact, its services are available in 30 languages, which is essential for individuals from small countries and regions (Yin et al., 2016). Taking into consideration that modern web service providers should provide versatile services to maintain the popularity level, Yahoo has numerous features (Fuller et al., 2020). For example, it is presently known for its unique search engine, Yahoo Search, Yahoo web portal, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Answers, and most notably Yahoo Mail. Accordingly, different types of customers’ needs can be met with the help of this organization (Fernández-Aráoz, 2014). The combination of these services is the reason why millions of people use this portal on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Yahoo is frequently described as one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s. Even though this Internet media company was initially founded by two students from Stanford University, it has managed to become the global leader in the area of search engines. Such considerable popularity of this organization can be explained by powerful search engines and a variety of additional services, including free email accounts, online chat areas, and news. Furthermore, the success of this company is usually linked with its mission, which is providing high-quality services in order to satisfy the needs of Internet users. Yahoo’s management and staff have taken appropriate measures to make this technology company known in the entire world. Therefore, Yahoo is a tremendously useful example of the way business should function in order to meet the expectations of its users and make a profit.
References
Cohn, J., Katzenbach, J., & Vlak, G. (2008). Finding and grooming breakthrough innovators. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Dewhurst, M., Hancock, B., & Ellsworth, D. (2013). Redesigning knowledge work. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Fernández-Aráoz, C. (2014). 21st-century talent spotting. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Fuller, J., Raman, M., Bailey, A., & Vaduganathan, N. (2020). Rethinking the on-demand workforce. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Richter, F. (2016). Before and after 4 years under Marissa Mayer. Statista Infographics. Web.
Yin, D., Hu, Y., Tang, J., Daly, T., Zhou, M., Ouyang, H., Chen, J., Kang, C., Deng, H., Nobata, C., Langlois, J., & Chang, Yl. (2016). Ranking relevance in Yahoo search. Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining. Web.