Editor: Xiao Chao/SEO Tribe
Among all the reflections during the financial crisis, Yahoo's response was the most delayed. When Yahoo finally started making various decisions and taking actions, ordinary employees were laid off, senior management was poached, search technology stagnated, and business volume began to drop significantly. Where is Yahoo headed?
Yahoo was one of the earliest companies to provide online search services and also the first to offer a categorized directory. From being the early leader, to later becoming a follower, and then evolving into a regional search engine, Yahoo has never managed to unify the network search engine industry. At best, it can be considered as one of the smaller powers during the Three Kingdoms period. Recently, affected by the financial crisis, Yahoo's stock prices have plummeted and its business volume has drastically decreased. Various factors are now attacking Yahoo. Looking at Google selling off its businesses and Microsoft strengthening its search business, Yahoo faces challenges not only in the search business but more importantly in how to keep the company alive.
Looking at market share across different countries, Google has consistently been the leader among the three, with no one able to surpass its search market share. However, if we closely examine the specific search engine usage rates in each country, we find that Yahoo still holds a significant position. At least they still have a group of local search engine enthusiasts in various countries using their services and spending money, preventing them from being quickly swallowed up by other companies.
According to data organized by iResearch based on comScore’s release, in August 2008, there were 57.36 million internet users aged 15 and above in Japan. In the search engine field, the monthly coverage ratio for Yahoo!, Google, and MSN/Live (all users aged 15 and above) exceeded 50%. Among these, Yahoo! had 48.17 million monthly visitors, with a monthly coverage rate of 84.0%; Google had 37.8 million monthly visitors, with a monthly coverage rate of 65.9%, narrowing the gap with Yahoo!. Meanwhile, MSN/Live saw an increase in visits to 30.12 million, with a monthly coverage rate of 52.5%.
Overall, Yahoo has further consolidated its advantageous position in Japan through localized product services. Due to the significant differences in internet user needs between the Asia-Pacific region and the United States, Google still needs to enhance its localized innovations to meet user demands.
More data shows that Yahoo will face even more challenges. In July 2008, Google held 79.8% of Germany's search engine request market share. Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck came second with 3.4% of the market share; ProSiebenSat1 Sites ranked third with 2.1% of the request market share; AOL and MSN/Live accounted for 1.7% and 1.0% respectively. Based on the German search request market share data released by comScore, iResearch believes that the reason why Google holds a larger market share in Germany than in the United States is because it hasn't faced strong resistance from Yahoo and Microsoft in the German market, and Germany lacks its own indigenous brand of search engines.
From the above data, we can see that Yahoo relies on local search markets in various countries to maintain its operations and cannot exert influence on a global scale. In contrast, Google dominates both broadly and deeply, not only expanding its business widely but also penetrating every country and every field, laying the groundwork for long-term development.
The previous acquisition case involving Microsoft left many people worried about Yahoo. When the financial crisis hit, Microsoft adopted a different approach compared to the other two. Instead of selling off its businesses or conducting large-scale layoffs, Microsoft recruited top talent and took advantage of the international financial crisis to vigorously develop its search engine business, aiming to catch up with other search technology leaders. The subsequent resignation of Yahoo's search technology vice president Sean Suchter and his joining of Microsoft undoubtedly strengthened Microsoft further, putting Google's dominant position in the search field in jeopardy.
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