What’s new with Yahoo?
Get ready for an amalgam of the company’s mobile analytics platform Flurry with mobile ad buying platform Gemini in February, which industry observers believe might just give Yahoo an edge over Facebook and Google.
While it’s still unconfirmed by Yahoo, tongues are wagging about the possibilities for market realignment going forward.
“With its latest move into the mobile space, Yahoo is inching one step closer toward its goal of becoming a ‘mobile-first’ company,” notes ClickZ. “Next month, the tech giant will introduce a self-service platform that will allow advertisers to place ads on apps across the Flurry publisher network, according to reports.”
“Yahoo has all the pieces to compete in the mobile space – content, platform, distribution, data, and access to developers,” explained Will Doherty, senior director of business development at Casale Media. “Yahoo is creating a marketplace at scale, short and simple, by merging these assets together.”
According to Doherty, the Flurry acquisition — which Yahoo completed in July, 2014 — was a wise move.
“Yahoo’s own mobile apps, like their weather app and general news app, are pretty good. They have tons of distribution. They have buying from the developer community, as well as brands in general,” Doherty is quoted. “So the ability to tie that across devices and be a scalable area for brands to enter into that market is very compelling. In fact, what we see Yahoo is building up now is programmatic-driven. So this is just a natural step in a right direction.”
That assertive move further into the mobile space has insiders suggesting that even Google and Facebook, which have their own mobile networks, could feel some heat.
“Yahoo is going for the right strategy in making mobile a priority,” according to Mark Strecker, chief executive of digital marketing company Amobee. “It has made some thoughtful acquisitions that afford it the ability to provide a full, end-to-end mobile advertising offer that will most certainly be competitive within the market.”
A new ability for Yahoo to let advertisers target and reach consumers across different platforms at scale, not just mobile, could be significant, indeed.
“By connecting the company’s existing offerings with these recent acquisitions, Yahoo will certainly be in a position to compete with the likes of AOL, Google, and Facebook,” Strecker said.