Even though Yahoo! and its 17 months interim CEO and origininal founder Jerry Yang have been kicked and called names at by popular media in recent times… Yahoo.com still is a profitable internet powerhouse of enormous proportions.

 

And many might not have noticed the silver lining in all of this. Yahoo! is still growing its huge reach even further and making huge inroads on several fronts.

 

An overview of Yahoo!’s spectacular and unexpected wins and why the economic downturn can help the plagued company.

 

Yahoo! scores BIG!

120 million users, three years after its launch Yahoo! Answers is a well known success story… In a moment of brilliance, Yahoo! has been able to copy the success formula recently with Yahoo! Buzz. A service which has proven to be a smashhit overnight.

 

Yahoo! Buzz use has exploded with monthly growth surpassing 70% since its launch in August 2007. In just seven months Yahoo! Buzz dethroned its biggest competitor Digg.com both in visits and spent time.

 

The service provided unseen gunpowder growth to several sites as following examples show:

  • Yahoo Buzz sent 16 million visitors to outside sites its first two weeks!
  • US Magazine had their second highest traffic day thanks to Yahoo Buzz, with 32% of visits that day coming from the Yahoo home page.
  • Salon.com had 1 million unique visitors on February 28th after getting on the home page of Buzz. A record for the twelve year old site!
  • Huffington Post reported 800,000 unique visitors from a Yahoo-linked story.
  • Sugar, Inc. sites have had nearly 1.8 million unique visitors sent from five different Buzz stories on the Yahoo home page.

 

In short Yahoo Buzz is a successful example of Yahoo!’s network effect if Yahoo! integrates smartly. Yahoo! Buzz isn’t a one off story either, Yahoo! has shown more empressive feats recently.

 

Yahoo! takes on Youtube?
Both Yahoo! Video and Yahoo Finance’s Tech Ticker have seen impressive growth spikes in recent months.

 

Tech Ticker - a modest reiteration of the illfated Yahoo! Financevision - brings you webcasts featuring news and interviews about tech companies and the financial markets. No wonder its viewage has spiked during the financial crisis and the economic turmoil.

 

Yahoo! Video - the headon competitor to Google’s Youtube leaped to the second place in the Video Webbrands popularity numbers.

 

While Youtube video streams “only” grew 12% last September, Yahoo! Video showed a spectacular 56% increase. Its userbase grew 35% in the same time frame.

 

A smoother integration with other Yahoo! sites like Yahoo! Movies, Yahoo! News and Yahoo! Finance are likely to credit for the healthy growth. It also bodes well for Yahoo!’s main page redesign (currently in beta).

 

Have a look at Yahoo!’s new homepage beta!

 

In the meantime Yahoo! TV’s weekly webcast “Primetime in No Time” reached the 100 million streams milestone in a record timeframe of only eight months since its March 2008 launch. This makes “Primetime in No Time” one of the most successful original programs in the history of the Internet.

 

Created to provide Yahoo! users with a daily comedic, rapid-fire recap of primetime TV’s most water cooler-worthy moments, “Primetime in No Time” reaches TV fans exclusively on Yahoo! TV at http://primetime.tv.yahoo.com. It is hosted by comedian Frank Nicotero and brought to users by Verizon. The webcast reaches 4 million users each week.

 

Yahoo’s big chance in a downward economy
Yahoo is a company with great potential. Even, or especially since the stock has taken a huge beating.

 

Due to the economic crisis Yahoo! suddenly isn’t the only internet company in distress.
Yahoo! already has several cost cuts in effect or on their way while others suddenly are scrambling too.

 

This could also be the perfect chance for Yahoo to line up some new seasoned and experienced talents in their ranks, including a replacement CEO.

 

 

Although CEO and Chief Yahoo! Jerry Yang will soon be replaced, Jerry made some smart and efficient decisions during his reign at the company.

 

As a techie himself Jerry Yang knew improving the workings of Yahoo!’s programmer teams all around the world could cut costs and shorten the launch timeframe for new products.

 

That’s why Jerry implemented a new way of working. From now on Yahoo! programmers worldwide are working together 24 hours a day, taking over tasks from eachother as time passes by. Instead of the old 9to5 time scheme where Yahoo! UK programmers only worked on the local Yahoo! UK & Ireland sites, Yahoo! France only on their French services,… etc. Each team now works on a global base.

 

Hang on, Yahoo! makes a profit??
Due to all the it’s cool to beat down Yahoo! press coverage, one would almost forget Yahoo! still is a profitable internet company with no debt and 3,3 billion dollars in its treasure chest. Coupled with a continuous user growth (17% Year on Year) and a massive half a billion users a month(!).

 

Jerry Yang and co shouldn’t feel bad, after all it’s a popular media sport to create heroes for the sole purpous to kick them down later. But the media also loves a great comeback story!

 

And in the meantime, why not try out Yahoo!’s latest innovation called Yahoo! Glue (beta).

 

Sources:

 

> Have your say! What’s your favorite Yahoo! service? Are you a Yahoo! believer?

 

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