In a series of announcements, Yahoo! outlined its strategy to try to gain marketshare away from Google.
“Yahoo!’s ultimate goal is to bring the best possible Internet experience to the billions of mobile consumers around the globe,” said Marco Boerries, executive vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo! Inc. “We believe that to succeed on such a scale, the best strategy is to open up our mobile platform in order to tap the innovation and talent of the world’s developers and publishers. Together, we’ll be able to offer the wide selection of content and services that will allow individual consumers to choose their own ideal mobile Internet experiences.”
The four underlying tenets to Yahoo!’s mobile strategy are:
- Enabling developers and publishers mobilize their services quickly, at high quality and low cost, across hundreds of devices.
- Delivering indispensable mobile services.
- Setting the gold standard for the best mobile Internet experience across the widest range of devices.
- Monetizing the fast-growing audience of the mobile Internet
- Enabling developers and publishers mobilize their services quickly, at high quality and low cost, across hundreds of devices
Until today, mobile publishers have been constrained by the historically high costs of development resources, the fragmented landscape of mobile devices, browsers and operating systems, and the lack of scalable development platforms. These barriers have limited the options for both consumers and publishers, handicapping the adoption of mobile data services at levels way below the potential of the marketplace.
Announced today, the Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform introduces a one-stop solution for developers to create mobile-optimized applications (i.e. Mobile Widgets) that are easy to build, quick to deploy, and run across a wide selection of devices, thus making it easier for Internet content and services to “go mobile.” By providing developers with tools to write code once and efficiently publish their content across hundreds of devices — instantly accessible by hundreds of millions of users — Yahoo!’s Mobile Developer Platform is expected to usher in a dramatic acceleration in the adoption of mobile services by creating an explosion of new choices for the consumer.
See related announcement titled: “Yahoo! Mobile Developer Platform to Enable Developers and Publishers to Build Applications with Instant Reach across Hundreds of Devices”)
- Delivering indispensable mobile services
Yahoo!’s mobile strategy is rooted in product innovation and excellence. Developing essential “core” Internet services that are built specifically for the needs of mobile consumers, like its industry-leading oneSearch offering, are critical for driving adoption of mobile data services at large scale.
Today, Yahoo! added another essential new service though the beta launch of the new Yahoo! mobile home page, a visually-stunning and easy to navigate interface for the most visited mobile site in the U.S. (M:Metrics, October 2007) — destined to quickly become the essential starting point for the mobile Internet globally. Designed to incorporate the best “home page” elements from pioneering PC portals such as My Yahoo! and the Yahoo.com front page, it embraces a dynamic, open and highly personalized approach. By visiting http://beta.m.yahoo.com from select mobile phone browsers, consumers will experience an open and customizable home page where users can personalize their mobile experience like never before, by drawing on content from the Yahoo! network and the leading Web properties from around the Internet. Yahoo! will make this new mobile home page available across an increasing number of devices and mobile browsers over the next few months.
See related announcement titled: “Yahoo! Redesigns Mobile Home Page to Be the Essential Starting Point for Mobile Consumers”
Yahoo! continues to innovate, refine and enhance Yahoo! oneSearch. oneSearch recently added new features to make finding a movie on the go even easier and recently added reviews from both critics and users. Consumers on select carriers and handsets can even watch trailers. oneSearch also features Flight Tracker, which enables consumers to stay on top of the constantly changing air travel system right from their mobile phones with up-to-the-minute flight information, including flight departure/arrival times, departing/arriving terminals, gates and more. Yahoo! also incorporated content from Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia to increase the amount of rich content available in consumers’ mobile search results and deliver instant answers from a variety of sources. By adding content from Yahoo! Answers and Wikipedia, Yahoo! is allowing mobile consumers to tap into the Internet’s largest knowledge sharing communities and reference sites while on the go. Over 400 million answers from over 120 million Yahoo! Answers users worldwide are available to consumers in 18 localized country versions of oneSearch, helping consumers find opinions, suggestions and facts quickly on their mobile devices.
- Setting the gold standard for the best mobile Internet experience across the widest range of devices
Launched in early beta today at CES, Yahoo! Go 3.0 — Yahoo!’s flagship, all-in-one mobile offering — provides the best Internet experience available for a phone. Yahoo! Go 3.0 builds on the success and popularity of the 2.0 version, but where Yahoo! Go 2.0 was a collection of mobile-optimized Yahoo! services, Yahoo! Go 3.0 is an “open” environment offering Yahoo!’s full selection of Mobile Widgets developed by third parties. Users now can tap into the vast selection offered by the rest of the Internet — making it even easier for mobile consumers to get exactly what they want, when they want it and how they want it.
Key new enhancements include:
— A More Intuitive and Rich Design — a visually stunning new look that makes efficient use of the phone’s small screen and speeds consumers’ ability to access the services they want
— A Truly Personalized Home Page — offers an at-a-glance update of what’s new since the last visit, previews of favorite web content, and quick links to frequently-used services
— Mobile Widgets — rich applications that let consumers’ access and enjoy their favorite Internet brands and services on their phones — whether from Yahoo! or any other provider
See related announcement titled: “Yahoo! Launches Yahoo! Go 3.0, Extends Leadership and Sets New Standard for the Mobile Internet”
- Monetizing the fast-growing audience of the mobile Internet
Yahoo! is focused on creating the monetization engine for the mobile Internet: enabling publishers to monetize their services, and advertisers to reach their target audiences at large scale and with impact. One step towards that objective is today’s launch of display advertising in the new Yahoo! Go 3.0 beta client. Many more innovations in mobile monetization tools and services are planned over the course of 2008.
Yahoo! currently offers mobile display advertising in 21 countries with search marketing live in the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. Yahoo! is the exclusive advertising partner for Vodafone in the United Kingdom.
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
For more information on Yahoo! Mobile please visit mobile.yahoo.com.