Yahoo's CEO asks for another pass in Q3
Users are loving Yahoo's 15 product updates from the quarter, according to CEO Marissa Mayer. But don't ask what that does for Yahoo's bottom line.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is, once again, asking for a bit more time to prove that Yahoo can remake itself.
During the company's third-quarter earnings live-stream, which features Mayer and CFO Ken Goldman as mock broadcast news anchors, the promising CEO made sure to emphasize that the company needs more time to turn itself around. Yahoo on Tuesday delivered disappointing earnings again. Though it beat Wall Street's estimates, the company reported that its revenue was down by 5 percent in Q3.
"It will take some time for our products to translate to revenue, but I am convinced we are on the right track...We are in this to win and to win big," Mayer said during the video stream's Q&A session.
The company highlighted its "unprecedented" number of launches in Q3 -- 15 product refreshes total -- but there was nothing surprising about the report. Mayer went on about the site's increase of traffic, and an increase of unique mobile users, from the 350 million reported in September to 380 million revealed Tuesday. She also made sure to mention Yahoo's new mobile offerings, which included a refresh of the company's iOS app (which, she said, convinced users to change their 2.5 rating to 4.5 rating on iTunes). Users "love" the changes, Mayer said. But for all the changes and upgrades, there's no growth in revenue.
It's shaping up to be another lackluster ad year for Yahoo. Internet marketing firm eMarketer estimated that digital advertising will become a $117.6 billion business by the end of 2013. Yahoo's share of global digital ad spending is expected to decline to 2.97 percent this year, according to eMarketer. This is down from 3.37 percent last year and leaves Google and Facebook to take up 32.84 percent and 5.41 percent shares of all global digital ad revenues, respectively.
It's no wonder analysts wanted reassurance that there will be results soon. During the earnings broadcast, they peppered Mayer and Goldman with questions about advertising revenue. Goldman said it's too early to say what will happen but the company expects results next year. As Mayer asked investors to continue trusting her judgement, she also stuck to her go-to mantra -- it's all about mobile.
"Yahoo's future is mobile and we're committed to delivering great mobile ads," she said. We'll see if next year's reports will have the figures to back that up.