梅耶尔的雅虎战略渐趋明朗

    很难责怪玛丽莎•梅耶尔的陈词滥调和捉摸不定，尽管她已经就任雅虎（Yahoo）CEO七个月的时间。在她的领导下，雅虎的邮件和Flickr相册服务的改进显然非常成功 ，而如今她开始关注包括搜索和移动应用在内的其他服务。

    在上周二的高盛（Goldman Sachs）技术网络大会问答环节上，她的大部分发言都呼应了两周前在公司第四季度财报电话会议上的讲话：她主要关注四大领域——搜索 、显示广告、移动业务和视频。唯一的新闻是她表示，雅虎计划将提供的移动应用从现在的60个减少到12至15个。她说，目前冗余的应用导致“产品组合凌乱不堪”。一些应用将 会进行整合，另一些将仍然保持独立，其余的则将停止更新。

    她一再重申移动服务将占雅虎未来业务的很大一部分，却并未表示已经研究出了一套盈利模式，同时坦承其他公司也没有解决这一问题。她（可能很准确地）推测，收 入将产生于用户需求，并根据这套理论来运营公司。在上个月的财报电话会议上，她表示就目前而言，营收来源尚“不成熟”。不过鉴于雅虎的移动应用拥有每月2亿的独立用户， 收入水平有很大提升空间。她在上周二的会议上猜测，大多数人会选择对自己“最有用”的2到4个应用。

    谈到其他三大领域时，她的阐述就没那么精确了。雅虎在搜索和展示广告两个领域很大程度上学习了谷歌（Google）的做法，今后将会更加“个性化”，不过她并没有 提出一个详细的战略。尽管梅耶尔表示将主要关注服务，但内容是另一个核心。她说：“总的来说，我们承诺为用户提供最佳内容，这是人们期待在雅虎的首页、体育版和其他页 面上看到的东西。”她还提到了内容合作，这更加强调了她服务优先的理念。不要期待在雅虎看到任何新的原创内容。

    尤其不要期待雅虎在音乐上有什么新的表现，尽管不排除合作的可能性。她说：“我们不会去追求音乐服务。我们寻求创新和差异化的角度，因此我认为雅虎在这个领 域并没有太多机遇。”

    她的演示中很大一部分内容是关于雅虎（在她就职前）错失的机会。她不愿涉足音乐领域，也不愿增加新内容。她不愿开发地图【“因为我从过去（作为一名谷歌高管 ）的人生经历中了解到” “那东西有多么烧钱”】。另一方面，人人都认为Flickr是一个错失的良机，但是改良之后，上传到这项服务的照片数量增加了25%。

    前任管理层错失的另一个机遇是视频。但梅耶尔似乎认为公司在该领域能够一展身手——尽管还没有制定具体细节。她说，它“将对我们的战略计划至关重要”。想要 在雅虎力挽狂澜或许仍是一个奇迹，不过她至少开了个好头，投资者们似乎也这么认为。自从她去年七月接手雅虎以来，公司的股价已经上涨了36%。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    It's hard to blame Marissa Mayer for speaking in platitudes and vagaries, though she's now seven months into her reign as Yahoo's CEO. With apparently successful revamps of both email and the Flickr photo service already under her belt, she's now focused on strategies for other services, including search and mobile apps.

    Much of her Q&A session during the Goldman Sachs (GS) Technology and Internet conference on Tuesday mirrored what she said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call a couple of weeks ago: Her main areas of focus -- the "big four" -- are search, display ads, mobile, and video. About the only news she made was to say that Yahoo (YHOO) plans to reduce the number of mobile apps it offers down to 12 or 15 from about 60 now. The current, bloated offering makes for "a very scattered product portfolio," she said. Some apps will be merged together, others will continue to stand alone, and whatever remains will be discontinued.

    While she reiterated that mobile will make up a big part of Yahoo's future, she made no pretense that she has the revenue model worked out. But she also noted that no other company has it figured out either. She operates on the (probably accurate) presumption that where users go, revenue will surely follow. For now, she said during the earnings call last month, revenues are "nascent." But with 200 million unique monthly users for Yahoo's mobile apps, there is enormous room for revenue growth. Most people, she guessed on Tuesday, will choose two to four apps "that matter most" to them.

    She was less precise when discussing the other three of her "big four." Search and display ads, where Yahoo trails Google (GOOG) by a considerable margin, will be driven by "personalization," though she didn't outline a detailed strategy. Content is another driver, though Mayer has indicated that her main focus will be on services. "Overall," she said, "we have a commitment to bringing excellent content to users, that's what people have come to expect on the Yahoo homepage, sports, and others." She also mentioned content partnerships, which served to underline her emphasis on services. Don't expect any new original-content plays from the company.

    In particular, don't expect any new forays into music, though partnerships are a possibility. "I don't think we're going to pursue music ourselves," she said. "As we look for the innovative and differentiable angle, I don't think that's an area [where] we see a lot of opportunity."

    Opportunities lost (before she arrived) made up much of her presentation. She won't do music. She won't add much if any new content. She won't do maps ("because I know from my past life" -- as a Google executive -- "how expensive that is"). On the other hand, everybody had written off Flickr as a lost opportunity, but since the revamp, 25% more photos have been uploaded to the service.

    Another opportunity blown by previous regimes is video. Here, though, Mayer seems to think the company has a shot -- though details are scarce. It "is going to be very important to our strategy," she said. It might still take a miracle to turn Yahoo around, but she's at least made a good start, and investors seem to agree. The company's stock has risen by 36% since she took over last July.