Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco to talk about it’s new logo, and four key things that helped the boost the company’s performance. She also announced that it’s seeing 800 million monthly active users, with 350 million from mobile.
In one of the first questions asked, she addressed the issue around the logo. She said that the idea was to reinforce the belief that the company is scrappy and did it all internally without spending millions of dollars. The company is more focused on its products as opposed to just its logo. While most logos get changed a little bit all the time, Yahoo’s didn’t change at all for 18 years — Mayer says that over time, smaller changes will be made to it (but what about that exclamation point?).
During the interview with CrunchFund partner Michael Arrington, Mayer was asked about the rebounding stock price and how it’s more than doubled since her tenure began more than a year ago. She attributes the move to smart investments made by her predecessors, including Jerry Yang, and says that it’s a chain reaction of 4 things: hiring the right people, building the right product, traffic, and revenue. These four things work as a funnel to help build a successful company.
On the subject of people, she said that recently there have been on average of 10 percent of “boomerangs”, or former Yahoo’ers that have returned to the company. What’s more, Mayer says that the company is receiving more than 12,000 resumes for new hires. These figures are similar to what Yahoo stated during its Q1 2013 earnings.
With respect to products, the company has been making frequent updates, including launching its Screen Video Streaming App and forming partnerships with Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central, and others.
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In terms of traffic, Yahoo is now seeing 800 million monthly active users, mostly from mobile (350 million), mail, search, and from products that are a part of their daily habits. This traffic doesn’t include Tumblr.
Mayer is focusing on mobile at Yahoo, saying that it’s growing tremendously with a great opportunity. It’s targeting those people based on activities that they’re typically doing on the phone, including email, texting, search, and more. Basically she was reinforcing what she told investors during its Q3 2012 earnings call where she would form a more coherent mobile strategy.
Today’s appearance was the latest opportunity for investors, consumers, and the press to hear first-hand at what Mayer’s strategy is for Yahoo’s recent acquisition. Some may be wondering what the game plan is given the company picked up Stamped, Qwiki, Astrid, Rockmelt, Summly, Xobni, and Tumblr. Unfortunately, Mayer didn’t give up the goods or even talk about the recent deals.
TechCrunch Disrupt isn’t Mayer’s first major appearance since she became CEO. She spoke at Fortune’s Great Place to Work conference in April and the Wired Business Conference in May.
See related: Turnaround: Marissa Mayer’s first 300 days as Yahoo’s CEO
Photo credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
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