Comments on: Yahoo Could Have Owned Social Networking

By: Deisha

Deisha — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:49:21 +0000

Hey is Yahoo aquiring student based Social Networking site in India???? Heard Yahoo is in Negotiations with a competetor of Orkut.com in India. That site is a simple student site called bharatstudent.com. we dont know how yahoo tries to compete with Orkut which is already a leader in India using a start up site like Bharatstudent.com.

By: Kieran

Kieran — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:40:42 +0000

Good points…Yahoo is playing catch-up when they shouldn’t have to. I expect them to overpay for whatever social networking service they end up with. Yahoo needs to make some moves, especially after Semel leaving.

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:52:00 +0000

Well, I think you have to blow up 360 if MySpace is a Yahoo property, but we'll see.

By: kevin

kevin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 13:44:45 +0000

You are so right about yahoo, they have admitted to dropping the ball on social networking.

Bebo.com was another social networking site they have been rumored in purchasing, there was the failed Facebook deal, and now this rumored MySpace deal. I am interested to see if Google steps in with this though because of the deal they have with MySpace with their advertising.

You are right about Orkut.com, it is HUGE in India. The features are horrible, like you said, I have tried to use it to review it and I have had nothing but technical problems with it.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I always wonder if yahoo is just going to acquire, blow up 360 and do it right, or just continually drop the ball.

By: Sid

Sid — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:33:38 +0000

@Aaron

“Google has little reach in social networking outside of youtube.”

Well orkut.com practically owns the Social networking in India…… not even met one college guy whos joined facebook or myspace out here. With the worlds second alrgest population livin oblivious to myspace and facebook. Those highest subriber stats dont seem that mighty to me. Altho would agree that orkut is way behind in terms of features…but who knows..all it takes is one fine day..

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:24:23 +0000

My point is that they are two different areas. Google has little reach in social networking outside of youtube. It’s an area waiting to be exploited by one of the giants and yahoo is most poised to do so.

By: Greg Gershman

Greg Gershman — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:50:34 +0000

Yahoo can’t out-Google Google; the question, for me, is if the social stuff can act as a new paradigm for using the web that beats search. I’m not sure it does. It’s useful, but it doesn’t monetize as easily, and it is by definition constraining rather than expansive.

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:43:42 +0000

Tamar: I have a post coming tomorrow morning that analyzes this rumored deal. You’ll want to check it out as I talk about what this deal would need to be successful.

By: Tamar Weinberg

Tamar Weinberg — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:29:13 +0000

To be honest, I don’t think that MySpace is worth that much. I’d love to know how many *unique* (and real) people are actually using it regularly.

If Yahoo goes the MySpace route, they should fix it up so that it’s a comparable product to Facebook. Right now, Facebook (imo) is totally winning out in every way.

By: Christian Burns

Christian Burns — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 16:53:39 +0000

If yahoo bought facebook for 1 billion and not messed with it, let the founders implement their vision including the f8 apps, then yes. But I dont think they could have allowed that course. They would have messed with it like they did with flickr and face book would not be what it is today.