The web services company Yahoo has connected millions of people to the things they love. The current CEO of this leading company is Marissa Mayer, and the headquarters is located in Sunnyvale, California. Here, let’s now about Yahoo SWOT Analysis.
SWOT analysis is used for measuring a company or organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We discuss this company’s advantages that make it stand out or attract people to it by forces. On the other hand, weaknesses and opportunities are for discussing what Yahoo lacks and how they can make up for it. Lastly, threats are usually its competitors and deficiencies that can take a toll in the long run.
Strengths
- Brilliant Service
Yahoo has been around since the early internet era. Their company has provided a brilliant service where users enjoyed its web portal and search engine. Moreover, its video-sharing and advertising services are just as great.
For students, it has information on almost every subject. In addition, you can do your research from home this way, and there’s a wide variety available.
- Simple interface
It is an easy-to-use interface.
- Range of Services
It is known for providing a range of services that people enjoy using. These include:
- Yahoo Search
- Yahoo Mail
- Yahoo News
- Yahoo Answers
- Yahoo Video
- Yahoo Travel
- Panama
These are just a few of the services Yahoo’s web portal provides.
- Available in Different Languages
The mail service is available in 46 different languages.
- Active Users
Yahoo email has around 227.8 million users who are active every month. About 26 billion emails are being sent daily.
- Yahoo mail app
Yahoo mail was optimized to be used on a mobile’s web search engine and an app. In addition, its email services include unlimited storage.
- Yahoo mail is organized.
There are better folders and ways to organize mail using this service.
- 3rd most Popular engine
Yahoo ranks third in the world’s most popular search engine category. It is a website that people turn to for reading news and other forms of media. Its search engine market share in the US is 3%.
- Online Advertisements
Yahoo’s popularity has allowed it to have a strong position when it comes to advertising. The largest profitable advertisement business is considered to be Yahoo. This is because it chooses to advertise for big websites mainly.
Its revenue is mainly generated through ads.
- Provision of internet services
It offers a range of internet services. Some of the services it provides include Yahoo 360, Yahoo Shopping, and Yahoo mobile.
- Lots of customers and users
It is one of the oldest search engines, so people have been using Yahoo for quite a long time. This gives them a large following and consumer base. They amount to over 350 million users in the world.
This allows Yahoo to grow even though there are stronger competitors around.
- The employee base is strong.
A solid employee base means that Yahoo is a reliable search engine. This is because all 8,000 of them work hard and struggle to improve the company.
- Product Quality
It ranks 5th when it comes to product quality score. Google, Microsoft, Baidu, and Yelp are in the lead.
- Net Promoter
It ranks 5th when it comes to the net promoter score too. But, again, Google, Microsoft, Yelp, and Baidu are in the lead.
Weaknesses
- The decline in market share
In many countries, Yahoo has been losing market shares. This has occurred in many countries. Research has shown that Google, Yahoo’s competitor has more than 80% of the worldwide market share while Yahoo only has 6%.
Market shares show stability, and Yahoo cannot stay stable, as demonstrated by the current ratio of market shares.
- Financial Struggle
The company is financially struggling as well. It was due to this that it decided to have Verizon Communications take over.
- Unable to innovate
Although Yahoo was popular and had great potential, it lasted for a short while. This is because the company was unable to innovate when it came to its services. Their competition would have innovation in their services and attractive features. This is why people’s attraction to Yahoo started to decline.
- Unsafe accounts
In 2014, Yahoo was unable to protect its users’ accounts. As a result, the personal information of 500 million user accounts was hacked worldwide. This resulted in stolen data like names, emails, telephone numbers, passwords, and more. This affected many reports in the UK as well.
- Yahoo Answers is not reliable.
This isn’t a good source of information. Users decide the top questions. This service will be shut down forever, according to a recent article. May 4th was its last day.
When this happens, Yahoo answers will redirect users to the homepage. Users were able to access their data until June 30th.
- Secretive about hacking
Yahoo did not disclose the breach until 2016. This shocked a lot of people.
Opportunities
- Business directory
The business directory service was the most popular amongst the people. Unfortunately, it didn’t make any improvements, but it has the potential for it. If Yahoo adds a user-friendly interface, it could get famous.
- Latest technology
Yahoo can take advantage of the mobile software industry to diversify it. People mostly use smartphones and laptops to use the internet. So if Yahoo uses mobile technologies and amends its services accordingly, it can profit.
- Make acquisitions
By making acquisitions with leading organizations and companies, there are more opportunities to avail. Therefore, Yahoo should try to make mergers with different companies.
Yahoo could have more fantastic opportunities if it chose to combine its services with social media platforms. This would also help the business grow.
Threats
- Free email providers
Yahoo competes with other companies that provide free email. Some of the world’s powerful email providers include:
- Gmail
- Outlook.com
- Mail.com
- iCloud mail
Others include GMX and Zoho Mail.
- Advertising competitors
Yahoo dominated this industry before. However, social networking sites like Instagram have taken over now. This is a hindrance to Yahoo’s growth. It reduces its profit and more.
- Other countries’ search engines
Some countries have developed their search engine, which is a loss for other companies. China and India did this, and since they have a vast population, this is a loss for other companies. They are losing potential users. Yahoo is unable to expand in those countries. It becomes difficult.
It is a threat for companies that are struggling like Yahoo.
- Competition
Google, with over 80% market share, is an extensive search engine. It is one of the biggest in the world. On the other hand, with only 6%, Yahoo shows that Google is far beyond defeat. Details about these companies and organizations are below.
Competitors
One of Yahoo’s biggest competitors is Google. Other competitors include:
- Bing
- DuckDuckGo
- Baidu
- Yandex RU.
- Microsoft
If Yahoo and Bing teamed up, there could be a chance for them to pressure Google.
There are various reasons why Yahoo is failing. They are:
- Yahoo lacks innovation and diversity
- Its financial struggles have given it a weak financial status
- Not enough improvement in research
- It isn’t keeping up with the times
These reasons have resulted in Yahoo losing to its competitors. These are the reasons for its struggles.
Latest News
Verizon had bought Yahoo, but as of May 2021, it sold Yahoo and AOL for $5 billion. The new company will have the name “Yahoo.” So AOL and Yahoo will only be known as Yahoo. Apollo, the senior partner, is optimistic that Yahoo will grow.
As of July 2021, Yahoo has started partnering up with platforms to grow its audience. They are trying to turn casual readers into fanatics. They would be more willing to spend money, and Yahoo would profit.
Conclusion
Yahoo’s SWOT analysis has shown that it doesn’t always stay that way, even if a company started tremendous and widespread. With all these new companies and organizations developing, the competition gets more challenging. Every one of them tries to best the other.
By focusing on the opportunities it still has, maybe Yahoo can make a comeback. It would need to minimize its weaknesses and work on a strategy for battling the threats. However, if they think smartly and don’t make poor choices financially, there may be a chance for Yahoo to become great again.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What went wrong with Yahoo?
The company has been struggling and eventually started to decline because of poor business choices.
- Why is yahoo bad as a search engine?
This is because of the way its algorithms work. It is easier to spam Yahoo and Bing algorithms. This means that actual legitimate businesses may not rank well in those search engines.
- What is the new version of SWOT analysis?
The new version of SWOT analysis is called SOAR. It is used for analyzing a company or an organization based on its strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results.
- How does Yahoo make money?
Services are offered to other website companies by Yahoo. For example, when a user clicks on an ad, the company has a system that measures this. The company, in turn, pays Yahoo.
