Competition is a good thing. We all know that. And now, as Microsoft goes on the hunt for corporate partners to help break up Yahoo!, Yahoo! gets scrutinized in a monopoly investigation for holding hands with Google. read on
In a letter to shareholders, Yahoo!’s Roy Bostock (Chairman) and Jerry Yang (CEO) have explained that the Microsoft offer will benefit Microsoft more than it will Yahoo!, and that Carl Icahn’s proposed new board won’t add value to the company. read on
The recent exodus of senior Yahoo! staff has given rise to an interesting blogging exchange. With so many leaving at such a time, we are bound to wonder whether its because they’ve been poached by Microsoft, or Google, or perhaps a secret start-up which Microsoft OR Google can buy later… or whether its simply because Jerry Yang is under pressure to cut costs in order to satisfy the “lack of shareholder value” argument put forward by Carl Icahn.
Reading between the lines, I suspect Icahn has little to do with it, and it is more a case of the Internet protecting its precious own. Only a couple of days ago it was announced that Google were in high-end talks with Yahoo about matters beyond the current advertisement-sharing model. Unlikely to be a all-out takeover, analysts have predicted a rescue package which will start slowly and gather pace for mutual advantage.
Meanwhile, Yahoo’s shareprice has plummeted while Microsoft remain aloof and disinterested about their previous takeover bid.
Yahoo!’s recent departees have included Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake (co-founders of Flickr), Jeff Weiner, Usama Fayyad, Jeremy Zawodny and JR Conlin.
Each of them are giving no solid reasons for their departure, in fact Stewart Butterfield’s strange resignation letter only adds further intrigue to the riddle.
Watch this space… and listen out in a couple of weeks for an announcement of what they’re all up to.
The plot thickens. Do contribute with a comment if you know more…
This year will see an important milestone in the history of advertising. For the first time, online ad revenues in the UK will be more than what is spent on TV. read on
Here’s an interesting case for anyone looking to build a new service online…
Wayn, (Where Are You Now), is one of the UK hopefuls in the race for social networking dominance.
Founded by Peter Ward in 2005, it targets young single people with freedom to travel.
It is now gets 6.5 Million visitors each month, and has an Alexa rank of 835. It grew from nothing by using Google adwords to attract its initial signups, and by offering free international SMS texts.
In doing so, it was reaching out to its intended target audience by providing the very thing it knew they were looking for (even though they didn’t know what WAYN was yet).
Part of the difficulty it seems, with many web businesses, is that what they offer is a service no one thinks they need because they don’t know what it is. read on
I’m here in Kuala Lumpur for Malaysia’s World Internet Summit and I’ll be speaking later today about the exciting potential for Viral Spiral Marketing in this country.
I’ll be interested to learn what delegates think of their impending position in the Internet Marketing community because it seems to me that Malaysia and Singapore are sitting on the mother of all gold mines in this industry.
Today’s newspapers spoke again of the impact on the world of increasing oil prices. For the third time in a generation, we are told, we are heading towards an oil crisis with global implications as the price per barrel teases the symbolic $100 mark.
But this time it is different. This time the price increase is driven by demand. Previously it has been caused by political pressure or constricted supply either in the Middle East, or Russia.
China’s consumption of oil has trebled since 1980. The current oil price, and potential increases in the future, are in correlation with the rise of the middle class in China and India as it steadily replaces mass poverty.
Look at these charts to see how oil consumption in China compares with Europe and the Americas:
And what else, aside of oil, do middle class consumers need?
Information… The Internet.
I believe the staggering increase in oil shown in China over the past 20 years is nothing compared to the forthcoming increase in Internet use in that country.
And when it comes to Internet Marketing, who in the world is best placed to teach them?
The cultural and language differences between China and the western world make it difficult for the main-stays of Internet Marketing to have a role in China’s growth. It seems more likely that it will come from her neighbours, in particular Malaysia and Singapore.
I’ll be speaking about this later today to the delegates of World Internet Summit Malaysia, and I will be interested to gather how prepared they are for their role in China’s Internet growth.
