雅虎新CEO眼下该走的五步棋

充分利用数据

    每月在雅虎网站上阅读新闻、点击广告和收发电子邮件的用户约为7亿人，因此，可以说，公司坐拥海量数据，它需要做的只是将数据充分利用起来。汤普森在与分析师召开的第一次电话会议上，以及接受《广告时代》杂志（AdAge）采访时，也承认了上述观点。他说：“在PayPal时，我们之所以能够打造出一家具有无穷吸引力的公司，是因为我们比其他任何人都擅长利用数据，理解风险和欺诈行为。我百分百确信，作为雅虎业务的核心，公司掌握的数据能够带来同样的优势。”《财富》杂志（Fortune）分析师也同意他的观点。虽然他们并不确定，雅虎将如何利用所有数据，但他们相信，其中肯定存在尚未得到开发的巨大潜力。

准自身定位

    近几年，公司一直无法回答这样一个基本的问题：“雅虎到底是什么？”公司高层近几年给出的回答莫衷一是，但却始终无法令公众满意。其中最好的回答要算前任CEO卡罗尔•巴茨的说法，即雅虎是一家科技与内容公司。而最糟糕的回答，是将雅虎轻率地定义为通过各种设备提供的一系列网络体验，“以满足人们的各种需求”。随着雅虎逐步放弃日渐衰落的服务项目，并专注于更有前途的业务和新项目，公司必须好好琢磨一下该如何回答这个问题——为公众，也为自己。

强化市场营销

    公司必须坚持持续的营销政策。目前，雅虎在在线广告领域节节败退：在价值120亿美元的展示广告市场，公司份额从2010年的14%下降到了去年的13%；而在美国搜索广告市场中，公司份额从约11%下降到了8%。虽然这在很大程度上是由于Facebook的日益流行和谷歌（Google）的无孔不入，但范博斯科克却认为，公司一直没能把广告产品进行有效包装，推向广告商。她说：“我曾研究过雅虎的营销材料，我发现每一份材料对产品的描述都各不相同，似乎他们自己都搞不清楚自己到底在干什么。我认为，如果他们简单地说：‘我们能做x，我们能做y，我们还能做到z，这样反而能取得更好的效果。’”

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Use that data.

    With 700 million monthly users reading stories on Yahoo, clicking on ads and emailing, the company is sitting on a wealth of data -- it just needs to use it. Thompson acknowledged as much during his first conference call with analysts and in an AdAge interview. "At PayPal, we were able to create an unbelievably compelling business because we used data to understand risk and fraud better than anyone on earth," Thompson told the outlet. "I am more than 100% convinced that there is the same opportunity in the data that is the core of Yahoo's business." Analysts Fortune spoke to agree. Though they're unsure of how the company can best leverage all that data, they believe there's a lot of untapped potential there.

Focus.

    In recent years, the company has struggled to answer a basic question: "What is Yahoo?" Responses from top brass have varied over the years, and they haven't necessarily been satisfying to onlookers. At best, it's been described by former CEO Carol Bartz as both a tech and content company. At worst, it's been loosely labeled a global series of Web experiences delivered across a variety of devices that "gives people what they want." The company must refine the answer for outsiders and themselves, as it continues to retire declining services and focus on more promising business segments and new projects.

Work on marketing.

    It should also be consistent. One area where Yahoo is losing ground is online advertising: the company's share of the $12 billion display ad market dipped from 14% in 2010 to 13% last year, while its share in U.S. search ads revenues dropped from nearly 11% to 8%. A large part of that may be due to the ever-increasing popularity of Facebook and ubiquity of Google (GOOG) for instance, but VanBoskirk argues the company hasn't done a great job packing up their ad products and explaining them to advertisers. "I've reviewed their marketing collateral and every single piece of collateral describes the products in different ways almost like they're trying too hard to get out a clever story about what they do," she says. "I think it'd be so much better if they said, 'we do x, we do y, and we do z.'"