Read/WriteWeb’s Web 2.0 Summit coverage sponsored by Yahoo!
This is the final session at the Web 2.0 Summit this year, a conversation
with Yahoo co-founder David Filo and Bradley Horowitz (Yahoo’s head of
innovation).
John says there’s a vibe that Y! has slowed down somewhat in public
perception, as opposed to Google. Bradley says that he picks up that from the
media. He says Y! has two lines of business – “audience creation” and
monetization. He says they haven’t done as good a job with the monetization part
in recent years. He says Y! is “a social media company” and so tries
to knit together / integrate a lot of their services. He says Y! has been
growing faster than the internet as a whole.
John asks David if they think a lot about Google. David says yes, as Google
started out in one area and now they cover a lot of things. He says 12 years ago
it was about competing with AOL, Time Warner, etc. So there has never been a
shortage of competitors, but they change over time. He says “the next
thing” is just as much a threat – MySpace, YouTube etc. He says that in 5
years time things will be very different again, so may be another startup that
gets big.
John notes that Google has the ability to outbid the likes of Y! for the hot
small companies – e.g. YouTube. Where are Y! in addressing that, in terms of
monetization etc. David notes that Microsoft can outspend Y! on anything – so he
says Y! has to take advantage of unique opportunities. He says their new
monetization model is still being worked on, they’re taking it cautiously – but
they want to bring advertisers into the new system in Q1 and over 2007.
John asks what things they look for in new companies. David says they look
for a great product and service that fits into Y!, but the people is important.
Bradley says the “micro acquisition” is something Y! does well in –
e.g. Flickr, upcoming.
John talks about the rumors of Yahoo merging with another large Internet
company, like Microsoft. David says these things have been talked about for
years, so he doesn’t have anything to add.
Openness – what is Yahoo’s take? David says it’s very important to them, e.g.
in the platforms and APIs. Bradley talks about the cultural importance of it and
mentions the Y! Hack Day.
A question about scaling the infrastructure and perhaps doing something like
Amazon’s S2 etc. David says the challenges are the physics of it (e.g. building
data centers) and other “across the board” challenges.
Question about peoples perception of Y! – mentioning the previous panel.
David says kids thinking Y! is “silly” is fine, because they want it
to be fun. Trust is also important and takes many years.
Dave McClure asks about why no blogging platform? Dave likes Facebook and Vox
for Y! Bradley says 360 is a blogging product – and “it may be doing a
180”.
A question about social media, and whether Y! is passionate about blogging.
David says he hopes in 5 years from now Y! will be “a very major player in
that space”.
