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David Filo and Jerry Yang Quotes

Article Overview: David Filo and Jerry Yang Quotes

David Filo and Jerry Yang Quotes

Jerry Yang Quotes

For those of you who've done any kinds of thesis work, it's pretty laborious and tedious, to say the least, so at the beginning of 1994, we started to procrastinate and spend a lot of time on the newly emerged ‘web.’

Really, we'd do anything to keep from working on our theses. And then, a funny thing happened.

We called it ‘Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web.’ Before we knew it, people from all over the world were using this database that we created.

It was a really gradual thing, but we'd find ourselves spending more and more time on it. It was getting to be a burden.

They told us we were crashing their system and that we’d have to move the thing off campus.

Actually, we were doing him a favour. He needed a real idea to work with.

We worry about staying competitive as well as continue to come up with new things. What I can say is that look for Yahoo! to continue to push the envelope on what we can offer for free, as well as a continued focus to develop the Yahoo! set of services around the world.

Okay, just think about it for a moment. I mean, just look at this. Web sites change all the time; this one is not the same as it was yesterday. So how often are they going to review their reviews? Will those reviews really be current and meaningful? I mean, with a few thousand sites it might be practical. But with 100,000 sites? How many sites can one reviewer review in one day? I mean, it would take an army. We get a thousand requests each day to have sites added to our list

I think in this business you really have to prepare for the scale involved. And if the business model won't scale up, then in the end it won't work.

We conducted an intense review of our business, examining everything from our strategy and culture to our competitive position and how the marketplace is evolving. We knew we had to change not only our business, but also how we prioritize and make decisions.

We had to shift from a siloed mentality to a more collaborative organization that marches toward a common horizon. We had to determine which businesses to invest in, and which to begin to exit or de-emphasize.

We defined a strategy that revolves around making Yahoo! indispensable to an ecosystem of consumers, advertisers, publishers and developers while tapping into three key differentiators, generating and leveraging insights, deploying open platforms, and becoming partner of choice.

What’s key here is our transformation from selling inventory on primarily the Yahoo! network, to becoming an advertising company that delivers comprehensive, integrated, and targeted solutions on Yahoo! and beyond.

We have phenomenal technology platforms and data infrastructure, and it’s time to share.

The possibilities are endless and “open” is all part of a new way of operating at Yahoo!

We’ve scripted our strategy, sharpened our organization, determined how we’ll prioritize, and zeroed in on our big bets.

I believe that Yahoo! is too often defined by the competitive landscape, rather than by what we can accomplish with our assets. I’m determined for us to define our own path.

The more I look back, the more I realize how fortunate we were to find the right partners, the right management. It seemed natural and intuitive then. Now I realize what key parts of our business they are.

Stanford had a huge part in shaping us. We saw Jim Clark (co-founder and chairman of Netscape) coming to school. Bill Gates came and built his building next to our trailer. The venture capital is there. If you are interested in starting a business, you’ll find other people talking about launching companies.

Do not be surprised if you don’t see a lot of me in the press in the near future as we keep our heads down working through the challenges and opportunities at hand. I’m sure not everyone will agree with that approach, but it feels right to me. I’m a big believer in doing versus talking. We’re focused on making changes from the inside out and we’ll get out there when the time is right.

Technology is an important component of what we do, but our real competitive advantage is to apply technology to become the best web-based communication, content, and commerce service.

Originally, it was Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web, but we settled on Yahoo! It is a pretty recognizable brand name.

Advertising on the internet is still very much in the beginning stages. I think there are a lot of things happening that are making it better for both advertisers and consumers.

Our purpose/goal is the same, to keep the internet free to the users and make the business part work by finding sponsors and advertisers who want to reach our audience. I think it is one of the keys to keep improving the usefulness of the web and make sure that as many people as possible can use it and derive value from it.

You have to realize when David and I were doing this it was just for fun. We never thought it would even become a business.

I think that it's always possible to have a great company if you have great ideas. I will say that since the web has become more commercialized, it also takes some good financial resources to build a great business, but as I always say, you have to have the idea first.

The time is now. The Internet is still young, the opportunities ahead are tremendous, and I’m ready to rally our nearly 12,000 Yahoos around the world to help seize them.

While our business continues to grow, we need to dramatically improve our performance and I intend to put us back on a winning path. There’s a lot of heavy lifting ahead, but I’m feeling good about our awesome assets, our initial progress against our challenges, and our vast opportunities if we nail down and execute against the right plan.

A lot of the credit goes to the smart and great people that have since joined Yahoo!, because they took it upon themselves to make Yahoo! great.

I have absolute conviction about Yahoo!’s potential for long-term success as an Internet leader. Yahoo! is a company that started with a vision and a dream and, make no mistake, that dream is very much alive. I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to transform Yahoo! into an even greater success in the future.


David Filo Quotes

I was terribly bored.

It was the real early days of the Net. We'd wander around the Net and find something interesting, and then I'd ask Jerry, 'Hey, where was that cool page we saw the other day,' and we could never remember where it was. I mean, it could take us hours to just get back there, to find it.

There was no bidding war. We liked the deal with Sequoia. For us, the most important thing was that we could hold onto it. We really weren't into this for the money or for the fast payoff.

Thousands of people were producing new Web sites every day. We were just trying to take all that stuff and organize it to make it useful. As it became more popular, it became pretty clear we would have to get more people involved.

It grew on me.

It is a place for adventures. A place to discover things.

We're not in this for the fast money. Really, what we want is to be part of this industry.

I feel pretty lucky. I mean I work all day and sometimes all night, but I like the people I work with and I'm doing exactly what I want to be doing.

Related Articles
  Two Yahoos on a Roll: The Early Years of Jerry Yang and David Filo
  Lesson #5: Create a Company Culture Worth Caring About
  Lesson #4: Give Your Business a Little Brand Aid
  Searching for the Stars: How Yang and Filo Took Their Business to New Heights
  Lesson #3: Focus On the Inside Out

Article Tags: army, business model, david filo, david filo and jerry yang, decisions, favour, funny thing, jerry yang, marketplace, mentality, theses, thesis work, world wide web, yahoo



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We are more richer today than the generations before us - We are more blessed today than the generation before us. We are richer today than the generation before us. We have chances of making more money today than the generation before us. Few yeas ago the Internet started and more millionaires had been made on the net than the years before. In the days of old you need capital or connection to be rich, nowadays a kid with an idea and few dollars can be a billionaire within a few years. If in doubt ask Mark the creator of Facebook, he started Facebook with just $200. Alex Tew started with nothing. David Yang and Filo the Yahoo guys started with nothing. They are also billionaire today. Bill Gate said the next generations of millionaires are going to be made on the Internet. Google had made thousands of people millionaires just for advertising on it. Clickbank had paid affiliates more than a billion dollars. Yours truly had made thousands of dollars on the internet. I am looking for the time I will make my first million dollars on the net. And don’t think it is going to be long. I will keep you posted. Are we not blessed in this generation?
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