Mobile, social, native and video lead the way in returning Yahoo to “iconic greatness”, says Marissa Mayer
“Fundamentally, we’re going from a company that makes web pages and monetises them through banner ads, to a company that make mobile apps and monetises them through native ads,” said Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer in the Q3 earnings talk.
Speaking to investors, Mayer said that the company achieved its revenue growth of $1.09bn (£683m) “through strong momentum in our new areas of investment: mobile, social, native and video,” with the above sectors growing 80 per cent year on year.
Naming search, communication, digital magazines and video as the four pillars of the company, Mayer added that 44 per cent of its display ads are now native.
In Q3, native accounted for $65m (£40.5m) in desktop and mobile revenue, with this expected to approach $80m (£49.9m) in Q4.
“Native ads have been experiencing triple digit year over year growth and have moved from being an idea and a prototype to a nearly quarter of a billion dollar business,” Mayer added.
Mobile is also an area in which Yahoo reported strong growth. Mobile revenue was up $300m (£187m) at Yahoo in Q3, with predictions of achieving $1.2bn (three quarters of a billion pounds) in gross revenue from global for full 2014.
“We’ve invested deeply in mobile, and those investments are paying off: our mobile revenue more than doubled year over year. Not only are our mobile products attracting praise and engagement from users and industry awards, they are demonstrating meaningful revenue for Yahoo.”
As predicted, Mayer also defended acquisitions made by the company, stating “We all came here to return an iconic company to greatness.”
She was quick to point out the success of Tumblr, her main acquisition from 15 months ago.
Since its acquisition, the Tumblr community has grown 40 per cent from 300m to 428m users, while mobile usage is up 50 per cent.
“Today, more than 260 of the world’s top brands not only have a presence on Tumblr, but also advertise and spend on the platform, and that number grows every day. We anticipate making more than $100m in revenue in 2015.”
She concluded the earnings talk by saying “When you consider the technology ecosystem, the rapid pace of change, competition for talent and emphasis on scale, Yahoo has come really far, really fast.”