Tag: business

Screw Up: The Decline of Yahoo

Yahoo was a leading company in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, possibly one of the best web services available. However, if you mention Yahoo now, you’d have to ironically Google it. Over a decade ago, it was holding its own against Google and Microsoft. With its peak valuation at $125 billion in 2000, it must have been hard to predict such a tech titan facing a downfall this unfortunate. 

What exactly happened to Yahoo? Yahoo now serves as a wake-up call to other companies to step up their innovation and create better strategies. Our article has broken down their story and mistakes. 

The founders of Yahoo! – David Filo and Jerry Yang

What is Yahoo? 

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo created Yahoo (often stylised as Yahoo!) as a small project. This small project was initially named, “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web,” with the vision of a directory-style search engine. 

Fun fact: The full form of “Yahoo” is “Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle” or “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”

Their services include– a web portal, Yahoo search engine, personalised page My Yahoo!, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo! Native. These were all active and regularly visited in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

 

These Grave Mistakes Cost Yahoo

Google: In 1998, Yahoo had the chance to buy Google for a mere $1 million and yet refused the offer. In 2002, Google’s offer raised to $5 billion which Yahoo countered for $3 billion, an amount the former rejected. This was one of the biggest mistakes Yahoo ever made as Google’s worth now sits at more than $1 trillion. 

Facebook: Yahoo tried to obtain Facebook for $1 billion in 2006. While their current valuation of $562.19 Billion is leagues above, Facebook was rapidly growing in 2006 and is a still remembered platform. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta Platforms (originally Facebook), rejected the offer. However, reports have said that Facebook’s board of directors pushed for $1.1 billion which Yahoo then refused for reasons unknown. Settling for that price difference would have acquired them one of the most visited social media platforms. 

Microsoft: Now the turns were turned on Yahoo for the opportunity of a lifetime. Microsoft recognised Yahoo and offered to acquire them in 2008 at $46 billion. Despite their generosity, Yahoo rejected the offer, priding themselves to be worth more than the offer price. 

Yahoo’s valuation continued to decline over the years, with all of these strategic moves amounting to nothing when they could’ve proved to be beneficial. Ultimately in 2016, their several mistakes led to Yahoo being sold to Verizon at a mere $4.8 billion. 

Strategies That Proved Yahoo’s Lack of Vision and Care

Strange Deal with Microsoft: The two companies then made a deal where Yahoo! Search would be powered by Microsoft Bing’s search engine. However, Yahoo’s failure to innovate its search engine, not prioritising quality for a smooth user experience, is a whole other downfall. 

Failing to Power the Niche of Tumblr and Turning Down Netflix: After investing in Tumblr at $1.1 billion in 2013, it was made known that Yahoo could have purchased the streaming service, Netflix, at $4 billion. However, due to their lack of creativity, a quality Tumblr needed, Yahoo dragged Tumblr’s valuation down to $260 million in just 3 years. Now, Netflix sits at $261.74 Billion. 

Lack of Consistent Leadership: Yahoo began a vicious cycle of switching and hiring external executives. Filo and Yang relinquished leadership to others, which led to confusion in direction. As the saying goes, “Too many cooks spoil the broth” and Yahoo’s leadership style proves it. The constant change and variety left them with no clear-cut vision. A company needs a vision and Yahoo severely lacked one. With too many possible futures and ideas, their leadership ruined any chance of forming a plan. 

The Data Breaches of 2013 and 2014: Any web service provider should arrive with the promise of data protection. Consumers should have confidence that their privacy will not be compromised. However, Yahoo betrayed that trust. Despite Yahoo’s popularity in the 2000s, the 2010s were a different story altogether. In 2013, over 3 billion accounts were exposed, revealing their names, passwords, emails and phone numbers. This wasn’t the last as 2014 saw another 500 million accounts violated. This jeopardised their trust and connection to the general public. 

How They Could Have Used Alibaba: Yahoo decided to invest $1 billion in 2005 in the Chinese e-commerce website, Alibaba. Alibaba was a much younger company and Yahoo’s investment gave it a rush of growth. However, when their business became expansive, Yahoo failed to make the correct decision. Alibaba’s value in 2014 was $168 billion, an impressive number that should have encouraged Yahoo to make a move. However, Yahoo’s CEO during that period, Marissa Mayer, decided to instead sell a portion of their shares with Alibaba. 

Where is Yahoo Now? 

Initially sold to and merged with AOL (America Online) by Verizon Communications in 2017, Yahoo has now been acquired for 90% division by Apollo Global Management in September 2021. The former CEO of Tinder, Jimmy Lanzone, now serves as the CEO of Yahoo. 

Follow our series, Saturday Screw Ups on Instagram: Saturday Screw Up – Yahoo! 

What Can Companies Learn From Yahoo? 

Here are the best lessons we can learn from Yahoo’s mistake: 

  1. Embrace Innovation and Seize Opportunities: Yahoo’s decline serves as a stark reminder of the importance of innovation and seizing opportunities when they arise. Yahoo had the chance to acquire Google for a mere $1 million but passed it up. Fast forward to today, now Google is worth over $1 trillion. This highlights the importance of recognizing innovation and acting swiftly to capitalise on it. 
  2. Value Quality Over Quantity: Yahoo’s failed attempt to compete with Google in search engine technology demonstrated the importance of prioritizing quality over quantity. Despite partnering with Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Yahoo’s lack of innovation and failure to prioritize user experience led to its downfall. Companies should focus on providing high-quality services that meet customer needs rather than simply expanding.
  3. Maintain Consistent Leadership and Vision: Yahoo’s frequent changes in leadership and lack of a clear vision contributed to its downfall. With each new leader came a different direction, leading to confusion and a lack of focus within the company. Companies need to maintain consistent leadership and a clear vision to guide their strategic decisions and ensure long-term success.
  4. Recognize and Nurture Investments: Yahoo’s failure to fully capitalize on its investment in Alibaba, Tumblr and others is a valuable lesson in recognizing and nurturing investments. While Yahoo’s initial investment in Alibaba provided a significant boost to the e-commerce giant’s growth, it ultimately failed to capitalize on Alibaba’s soaring valuation. Companies should carefully evaluate and nurture their investments to maximize their potential returns and incite future growth.
  5. Protect Consumer Trust and Data: Yahoo’s data breaches in 2013 and 2014 severely damaged its reputation and eroded consumer trust. Companies must prioritize data security and take proactive measures to protect customer information. Building and maintaining trust with consumers is crucial for long-term success and brand reputation.

Elon Musk proposes $8 per month for Twitter blue tick

The new owner of Twitter is ready to shake up how the app works from the ground above. Elon Musk recently took control of Twitter after completing his $44 billion acquisition the past week. A lot has happened ever since Musk took command of Twitter, be it him walking into the headquarters with a sink in his hands or key staff members and the board of directors being shown the front door. While it was expected that Musk will make radical changes to the platform, people were not expecting that there will be a change in how accounts are verified with the blue tick. It looks like users will now have to pay a monthly fee in order to keep their verified status on Twitter!

$8 for blue tick on Twitter

Musk had some strong views to share on Twitter’s verification policy. He described the current system as a ‘lords & peasants system calling it ‘bullshit’. Elon wants to bring a change in the Twitter verification system with it being available only to Twitter Blue subscribers at the price of $8 per month.

A verified tick is not the only feature as Blue members will also get more benefits with the $8 price tag. Twitter won’t be an entirely ad-free experience for Blue users but they will see ‘Half as many ads’. Additionally, Blue members will also get priority in tweet replies, mentions, and search. Another feature catering to creators on the internet is the ability to be able to post longer video and audio content. Twitter Blue will also come with a paywall bypass feature that will directly work with publishers that collab with the platform. According to the Twitter boss, Blue subscription will be differently adjusted by country. Twitter Blue has not been introduced yet in India and it will be interesting to see at what price the subscription is introduced here.

Naturally, the decision has faced a lot of backlash on the platform. Many blue tick verified users have expressed their disappointment over the new rule. However, Elon Musk won’t be backing down from his decision.

 

 

How digital marketing helps to develop promoting methodology to speed up outcomes?

Digital marketing is a higher priority than any time in recent memory. Find ways to make or further develop your promoting methodology today to speed up your outcomes

Digital marketing, explicitly, alludes to ‘Accomplishing showcasing targets through applying computerized innovations and media.

Digital technology and media include:

Organization sites

Mobile applications

Online social media pages

Web indexes

Publicizing and advertising

Email and mechanization

Advanced Partnerships with other computerized organizations

Be that as it may, to be genuinely effective, advanced strategies should be coordinated with customary media like print, TV, and post office based mail as a component of multichannel advertising correspondences. All the more critically, presently like never before, you should have the option to exhibit the worth of your work. So, if you don’t have a strategy yet, or if you want to examine which business challenges should be included in a strategic review, we’ve compiled a list of the ten most typical issues that develop when you don’t have one.

Digital Marketing Provides a Path to Success

The absence of a digital media marketing system doesn’t simply mean you’re passing up business openings; it proposes that your organization isn’t sincerely trying. Assuming you’re not anticipating achievement, it presumably will not occur. In any case, likewise, with any strategy, a digital marketing technique can assist with pointing the way forward for your business. Significantly, an incredible arrangement can likewise give you a noteworthy countermeasure that can direct you through troublesome occasions and keep your activity together. An advanced promoting procedure guarantees that your clients stay at the core of your business and assist with guaranteeing new crowds are continually approaching.

Digital marketing Marketing Generates Audience Insights

In the event that you need your business to succeed on the web, you must be on private terms with the commercial center. It’s a wilderness out there, and contenders are working nonstop to attempt to take your piece of the pie. Notwithstanding, a system can assist you with creating bits of knowledge into your crowds that you can execute across your business to further develop transformation rates. Investigation and catchphrase examination mean you can discover what you need to never really traffic traveling through your site again and what it is that crowds are searching for. When you have that information, you can begin precisely fulfilling their requests and find how you can widen your image’s allure.

Every one of Your Competitors Have Digital Marketing Services

Assuming you haven’t submitted satisfactory assets to your mission, you can be certain that the opposition as of now has. In case you’re trusting clients will react to specially appointed digital marketing, what are the odds they’ll pick you? Particularly when an opponent is pursuing them with a completely incorporated and exhaustive mission across various kinds of computerized promoting. In the event that you’re significant about gaining by the online commercial center, you must be prepared to submit the essential assets to make a legitimate showing

You don’t have an amazing online value proposition

An obviously characterized computerized offer customized to your diverse objective client personas will assist you with separating your online help empowering existing and new clients to connect at first and stay faithful. Fostering a cutthroat substance advertising procedure is critical to this for some associations since the substance is the thing that draws in your crowds through various channels like hunt, social, email showcasing, and on your blog.

You Need to Develop Customer Relationships

In the event that you need your online business to work, you need to realize how your clients are reacting to it. Do they discover your site as simple to explore? Have you given transformation openings at the best phases of the brand journey? Do you realize what could make your piece of the pie safer? The responses to these inquiries would all be able to be found inside computerized advertising patterns. Investigation, web information, and other computerized advertising apparatuses can advise you precisely where you’re turning out badly with your site and assist with making all your retail channels more productive.

It’s normal to discover your marketing department compartmentalized into various storehouses where offices complete their allotted errands without much in the method of mix with one another. This may appear to be a steady framework, however, you miss out on adequacy and agility. An advanced advertising expert capacities at their best when coordinated across the entirety of your distinctive showcasing and media offices. A procedure that coordinates all your various assets will profit from the products of collaboration.

We just referenced the risks of underfunding your specialty. Nonetheless, you additionally must be cautious for the swell to guarantee you’re not squandering significant assets. Duplication, where you discover various components of your advertising division consuming assets to do a similar occupation twice, is a typical side effect of this. A methodology gives responsibility to each business use you make and guarantees you’re not squandering your energy on copy occupations or re-appropriating work to advanced promoting administrations.

In the face of change, you lack agility. Take a look at any of the top online firms, and you’ll see that their strategies all have one thing in common: an unwavering commitment to innovation. Obviously, not everyone can commit the same amount of time and effort to developing and refining their marketing plans. It does not, however, cost the earth to experiment with various marketing strategies and see whether there is another path to success.

Every company uses website analytics, but it’s not uncommon for management to fail to provide their workers the opportunity to act on these vital findings. You may devote time to reappraising all parts of your marketing performance and determining which modifications would be most beneficial to your organization if you have effective digital marketing techniques in place.

ALSO READ  ‘Boost your business with SaaS’

Boost Your Business With SaaS

The main question is that How does SaaS help to boost the business?

SaaS offers several advantages to its clients, including the decreased forthright expenses of business software, the need to introduce programming on singular machines, administration versatility with a business’ development, reconciliations with other software’s, and moment updates to all clients. That is only a couple of the advantages. One of the significant advantages is that the product never leaves date. Along these lines, there is no expected hold-up too.

Still, wondering whether to implement SaaS into your business or not? Below, we’ve outlined several  ways SaaS can boost business productivity

1)It Automates manual tasks-

one of your requirements is to save time and increment your group’s efficiency, picking SaaS programming to robotize undertakings can go far in smoothing out work processes, empowering your representatives to deal with the most time-basic errands and tasks.

The less time they spend on doing manual, redundant undertakings, for example, administrator work and messaging, the additional time they can spend getting things done to build business development and meet your organization’s objectives.

Regardless of whether you need to robotize the formation of vanity numbers for business or your information passage frameworks, SaaS can save time for your representatives to zero in on what’s generally significant. This permits them to put their abilities to use instead of squandering their ability on monotonous, manual errands that detract from their enthusiasm instead of terminating them up.

2)It improves teamwork and communication

 

You may quickly improve your team’s communication and collaboration by using a SaaS product that uses cloud communications or a cloud contact center. The way business functions have changed since the epidemic, with hybrid and remote employment becoming a popular option for many.

This affects interchanges inside the group since actual gatherings and office culture have been pushed aside. With SaaS, notwithstanding, organizations can keep their group associated and encourage cooperation through various stages that give correspondences on the cloud and a wide assortment of virtual gathering instruments.

3) it makes business scalable to any size

The beauty of SaaS is that it is easily scalable and can adapt to your changing company environment and support expansion. This means you’ll be able to give existing and new employees access to more features and tools from any SaaS platform you choose

Because SaaS is scalable, it can readily connect with any of your objectives, from content marketing to client retention. Depending on the service you choose, you’ll be able to expand your business’s capabilities without having to invest in costly gear.

4) It Separates storehouses

 

If you choose to pick a SaaS item that consolidates cloud correspondences and video programming into its frameworks, not exclusively can you encourage correspondence, yet you’ll better separate division and information storehouses.

the data isn’t new – it’s been around since business initially started, yet the beginning of distance and a half and half work has brought worker efficiency and commitment under more danger than previously

The divide between the front office and back office has widened as teams have become physically separated, resulting in lower levels of interaction and participation.

Your staff will be less engaged and involved if there are more silos. This could take the form of one department being unable to effectively interact with another due to a lack of knowledge about their area of expertise.

5) It can be effortlessly  installed and available

An extraordinary aspect of SaaS is that it’s for the most part available and effectively introduced. Most stages furnish clients with convenient manuals and set-up guides just as contacts for client service.

also read -https://www.exhibit.tech/tech/a-comprehensive-guide-to-saas-software/

A Comprehensive Guide to SaaS Software.

Before we dive into understanding that how SaaS can boost your business, we need to explore what SaaS is.

How about we start by characterizing SaaS, it means ”software as a service” and the title pretty clearly explains itself. Rather than purchasing a costly business programming out and out, think Microsoft Office before 365, you lease a product, at a precarious value decrease. SaaS is offered in an assortment of structures like distributed storage, hailing a ride, or running field administrations. In any case, even though SaaS can uphold any industry hence showing the adaptability of the model, they all offer a couple of things in like manner. The product is constantly facilitated, refreshed, and kept up with on a focal worker (for example the cloud) by the creating organization. The clients of SaaS access the assistance through the web as opposed to putting away everything on their gadgets. By and large, the solitary thing you should store is the essential gateway that permits you to utilize the SaaS stage. In conclusion, clients for the most part pay a month to month, yearly, or some other kind of administration charge for the product, these sums shift extensively relying upon the assistance delivered.

SaaS offers several advantages to its clients, including the decreased forthright expenses of business software, the need to introduce programming on singular machines, administration versatility with a business’ development, reconciliations with other software’s, and moment updates to all clients. That is only a couple of the advantages. One of the significant advantages is that the product never leaves date. Along these lines, there is no expected hold-up too.

An extraordinary aspect of SaaS is that it’s for the most part available and effectively introduced. Most stages furnish clients with convenient manuals and set-up guides just as contacts for client service.

In addition to the fact that this paves the way for a fast arrangement, so you can begin on hitting your objectives and expanding business development, however, you’ll have the option to resolve issues effectively, which means your group can zero in on the main tasks as opposed to faffing around with complex item establishments.

Besides this, SaaS is available – most clients will want to get to the product from an assortment of gadgets, including versatile and work areas. This is particularly useful in a far off and crossover work setting since it empowers representatives to work in the manner in which they feel generally happy, enabling them to settle on their own decisions

Propelling the Business Growth via Social Care Implementation

The world is shrinking with every passing year. With Internet penetrating every corner of the globe, people are now more connected than ever. To praise a product, service or brand or to vent out a negative experience, social media has now become the default go to medium for the masses. 

Brands do utilize social media to not only gain leads and track their mentions, but also to derive strategic insights that will help with more conversions. While a steady growth and lead acquisition is always paramount for the growth of a business, the thing that hurts brand the most is the delay in grievance redressal. Complaints, debates and controversial mentions about them are often viral-prone. Monitoring them on the social network is one thing, segregating them from the social posts into categories like language, geography, priority type, tenure of complaints, urgency etc. to provide a timely and professional empathetic resolution, is another. 

Businesses may have the optimum resources to resolve complains, that too within the stipulated deadline, but in the infinitely seeming Internet world, becoming aware of the customer’s problems within the socially accepted time frame can be more challenging than it seems to be. Empathetic customer care is about letting a customer know that his query/ her query, complaint is acknowledged followed by a speedy delivery of solution within the allocated time frame. 

So how do we achieve that? 

Social Care Implementation is a proactive approach to address consumer’s engagement, responses, feedbacks with a timely response, followed with an appropriate action and keeping a follow up to exceed the satisfaction benchmark of the consumer. Social listening may appear to resemble Social Care implementation but the intent and therefore, the impact of the two are different. Social listening certainly plays a crucial role in the whole process. On the other hand, social media monitoring is largely concerned about tracking the brand and competitor mentions, hashtags and industry trends etc. over a period. 

Sorting of social posts into complaints, feedbacks, and reviews is not only laborious but error prone. A silo structure of social listening, data processing and CRM software is a major hindrance too. The absence of a holistic view of customer’s case history with official complaints with respective answers from other customer-care agents is an obstacle that restricts efficient resolving of the problem. In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, providing a seamless customer care experience is not important. It is Imperative. As imperative as customer acquisition and retention. Therefore, speedy addressal to concerns is the need of the hour. 

ATCS’ innovative social care implementation method is highly customer-centric, tailored for specific industry with leading-edge automation, requiring human intervention at the escalation level where it is indeed needed. By fully integrating the social listening tool like Salesforce Social Studio, data processing and CRM capabilities, a highly efficient route can be road mapped which addresses the concern of the consumer within the set timeframe, thereby delivering an experience that increases the probability of retention, acquisition, positive brand mentions and effective management of crisis through PR. The process also yields insights that helps to keep an edge over the competitors. 

The age-old mantra of “Customer is the king” holds true across every business sector and steering the controversies of the brand to prevent further damage is important for brand loyalty. With innovation and cutting-edge technology, social care implementation can fuel a business’s growth to a whole new level.

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