The same week Google introduced its local recommendation service Hotpot and Facebook announced its new messaging platform, Yahoo! said it formed partnerships with online gaming company Zynga and several coupon sites and local deal networks. But will these moves help make Yahoo! more significant again among users and advertisers?
Yahoo! is still the leading email property in the US, despite all the hoopla surrounding Google’s Gmail vs. Facebook’s “mail.” At the Web 2.0 Summit this week, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz said, “We serve 6 million different front pages a day”—her way of saying, “Yes, we’re still relevant.”
But is it? Much of Yahoo!’s business now relies on other companies. Its search business is outsourced to Microsoft. And rather than acquire or organically grow a “deals” platform, as Facebook and Google have done, Yahoo! has gone the outsourcing route. Its new “Local Offers” and “Daily Deals” are based on partnerships with four of the top five group-buying websites in the US—Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and Tippr—as well as other local and deal sites, including Lifebooker and Coupons.com.
On one hand, these deals could put Yahoo! a step ahead of Google and Facebook, which are still building user bases for their own social commerce platforms. On the other hand, Facebook and Google are so hot right now that it’s tough to imagine consumers (or marketers) straying too far away.
Then there’s the partnership with Zynga. Ad spending on social games and applications is already on the rise. eMarketer forecasts spending to increase 33% in the US between 2009 and 2011, as my colleague Paul Verna wrote about earlier this week, and Zynga is a leader in the space. The partnership will boost traffic to Yahoo! Games and increase awareness—and, Yahoo! hopes, ad dollars—for other properties and games on the site.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! has a chance to build its popularity among gamers and users by partnering with Zynga. Teenagers surveyed by Roiworld and OTX in April 2010 said they spend 2.6 hours a week on Yahoo! Games, far less than the 4.8 hours per week they spent on Zynga, or the 7 hours they played games on Facebook. By aligning with a more popular brand, Yahoo! has the potential to increase time spent on its games site, which makes it more valuable for marketers who want to advertise, do in-game promotions or develop more innovative ways to interact with users.
The lingering question now is, “Will consumers use these new features?” Zynga, Groupon and several of the other local deal sites already have established user bases, so that helps.
But Yahoo! can’t continue to rely on the power of Zynga and others to improve its ad business. Now is the time to be innovative with its advertising and marketing platforms, building upon these partnerships with new ways for marketers to reach Yahoo! users. Both Google and Facebook have made mobile a major part of their new initiatives, so where is Yahoo!’s mobile element? How is Yahoo! improving its measurement and metrics for marketers? If Yahoo! can innovate, as well as continue to strike new partnerships, marketers will pay attention to the brand, even as it continues to face off with Facebook and Google.
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu