Around the Net
Yahoo Axes App Roster
- paidContent, Monday, January 30, 2012 11:57 AM
It turns out Scott Thompson has no patience for poorly performing apps. Proving the point, Yahoo’s recently named CEO is pulling the plug on 10 such mobile services, including Yahoo! Finance (Blackberry); Yahoo! Movies (Android); Yahoo! News (Android); Yahoo! Shopping (iPhone); Yahoo! Deals (iPhone); Yahoo Meme (iPad and iPhone), and Yahoo! Answers (Android). “The list is a mix of some of Yahoo’s more popular online brands and some services it created especially for mobile users, but all have one thing in common: they weren’t being used much by consumers,” reports paidContent. “In the words of Yahoo itself, it is removing the apps as part of its effort ‘to continuously measure and scrutinize what’s working and what isn’t as part of a new ‘mobile first’ strategy.”
With the decision, Yahoo is essentially reshaping its entire mobile strategy, while admitting that many me-too products (Deals in the vein of Groupon; Meme in the vein of Twitter) could not hold water. Yahoo will continue to support a number of other apps. “For now, News and Finance will continue, for example, on iOS; as will Sports, Mail, Messenger and Flickr,” paidContent writes. “Yahoo is also pressing on with two new apps it launched last year, IntoNow, a GetGlue-like ‘check-in’ app for TV and other entertainment viewing; and Livestand, a Flipboard-like aggregated magazine.”
