On stage today at TechCrunch Disrupt New York, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer pushed against the narrative that Yahoo is worth nothing. The company has a market capitalization in the tens of billions, but’s it been pointed out that if you add up the value of its stakes in Yahoo Japan, and Alibaba, the company could be valued at something approaching zero.
Yahoo’s Web sites still look like something out of the ’90s to me. Having said that, I have faith in Mayer.
I think that Yahoo is very aware that their site is always at least one generation behind and that’s part of their strategy; they’re going after the silent middle of the market, not the bleeding edge.
While I’m not using their products (hey, living on the edge, baby…) they never seemed goddamn awful to me. They look like they’re just right for my mother, aunts etc. And that’s ok for me.
The problem for Yahoo is that nobody knows what they are. You might know what Flickr is, but what is Yahoo? How can you invest in something so nebulous?
I switched my browser to Yahoo and gave it a whack. I switched back within 10 minutes.
Some parts looks like they’re from the 90’s, but others like the weather page, are very modern.