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Marissa Mayer says Yahoo's top priority is a 'focused, coherent mobile strategy'

Marissa Mayer says Yahoo's top priority is a 'focused, coherent mobile strategy'

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New CEO 'very pleased' with Q3 financial results

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Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer

Yahoo hasn't made much impact in the mobile space, and no-one knows that better than new CEO Marissa Mayer. Taking the reins at the company's Q3 earnings call, during which the company reported operating income of $177 million after a third straight quarter of revenue growth, Mayer outlined Yahoo's failings in mobile while saying that "Yahoo will have to be a predominantly mobile company" in the future.

Today, there are more than 1 billion smartphone users globally. As expected, that will double in the next 3 years. And while we've made progress, Yahoo hasn't capitalized on the mobile opportunity. We haven't effectively optimized our website, we've underinvested in our mobile front-end development and we've splintered our brands. We have more than 76 applications across Android and iOS. All of this need to change. Our top priority is a focused, coherent, mobile strategy. We're accelerating our efforts to build a strong technical talent base for mobile. This includes engineers, product managers and designers.

Mayer believes the company is very well-placed to capitalize on the ballooning smartphone market, with core services that dovetail with some of the most common things that people do on their phones. Unfortunately she didn't go into detail into how Yahoo might take on competitors such as former employer Google, instead choosing to underline that the company will continue to focus on personalization of advertising and content.

The CEO reiterated that "the core of Yahoo is incredibly valuable and is a great platform to build on," responding to a question by saying that there won't be a "giant pivot." Only time will tell if improved efficiency and execution on the company's existing products will be enough to restore it to former glories.