MxMIndia

Tag: Yahoo!

  • For Public Comment

    IAB Tech Lab releases Identity Solutions Guidance

    By Our Staff

     

    IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standards setting body, released its Identity Solutions Guidance document for public comment for 30 days until November 4, 2023.

     

    The Identity Solutions Guidance document is an informational guide that provides a high-level overview of the most prevalent techniques employed by different identity solutions; explores the mechanics of how these identifiers work; reveals their value propositions and utility; and offersinsight into what factors to consider when evaluating an identity solution.

     

    Said Shailley Singh, EVP of Product & COO at IAB Tech Lab: “The Identity Solutions Guidance document is designed to demystify the rapidly evolving landscape of identity solutions. As the industry grapples with the imminent deprecation of cookies and reduced availability of mobile identifiers, this guidance will equip industry stakeholders with the knowledge required to comprehend and evaluate various identity solutions, products, vendors, and their underlying technologies. We invite industry stakeholders to actively engage during the public comment period and contribute to the refinement of this important resource.”

     

    Added Giovanni Gardelli, VP, Ads Data Products at Yahoo: “The digital advertising landscape continues to face questions about how identity solutions function and how they can thrive in the absence of traditional cookies and mobile identifiers. The IAB Tech Lab is aiming to support the industry, offering a comprehensive guide that fills the education gap and offers strategic insight into the practical implementation of these solutions.”

     

  • The more news sources you can access, the wider the range of news at your disposal for you to make informed choices, writes Ranjona Banerji. But….

    Control. Damn. Delete

     

    By Ranjona Banerji

     

    Ranjona BanerjiYahoo has shut down all its news sites in India. The government’s new FDI laws in the digital media meant Yahoo owner Verizon had to change its ownership patterns to no more than 26 % foreign investment. However, according to news reports, Verizon has been unsuccessful since November 2020 to get the government to approve its ownership changes.

     

    You could look at this as a sort of technical hitch in operating in India (“ease of business”?), you could do several gleeful jumps that Indian pride had been fulfilled and no foreigner was going to control Indian news, or you could take a cold hard look at how the dissemination of news in India was being controlled in overt and covert ways.

     

    Here she goes again, you might think to yourself, blaming India’s most patriotic government. But news is not what makes you happy, what you want to know, what makes you proud and what fulfils your ideas of self-glory. News is everything, good, bad, ugly and mostly ugly. The more news sources you can access, the wider the range of news at your disposal for you to make informed choices. The more news sources you do access, the less of an impact fake news can have on you.

     

    And here is the crux of the matter. Let’s say for the sake of argument that all governments want to control the flow and composition of the news so that they can keep their citizens, subjects, whatever in darkness and ignorance, making them easier to manage. Control has been an essential component of a “successful” ruler through human history. In ancient times, it was most apparent through religious power – keep religious books away from believers so that they cannot think for themselves or question anything. Since kingly power flowed from religion, both the priestly and ruling classes were satisfied. The printing press and democracy severely hampered this age-old method of control of information.

     

    Since that evil invention of a printing press and with the advent of democracy and with that the birth of journalism and mass media, this hoary plan of domination got severely hampered. The lynchpin of every successful fascist ruler has always been propaganda and media control. A most unlikely ally in recent times has been social media. The internet which was supposed to make information free and easy to access has also allowed misinformation to become even easier to access.

     

    It is always worthwhile to go back to the Cambridge Analytica story to remind oneself of how easy it is to manipulate the minds of millions and to get manipulated.

     

    To get back to the beginning, the shutdown of Yahoo News means that readers have lost one more source of news. They have that much less to depend on. They are pushed that much further towards India’s many open propaganda outlets and the many that are by compulsion or fear turning into propaganda outlets.

     

    The threats faced by journalists has increased in the past few years, and the numbers who have been killed, arrested, threatened, harassed for doing their jobs have also gone up. We add a new name to that list: Sristhi Jatav, who works for the Dalit Times, a news website. This young reporter was arrested by the Delhi Police for covering the demolition of the Dhobi Ghat slum. Jatav was later released but ask yourself why she should have been arrested at all. Every small incident like this racks up the dangers for journalists in India.

    https://scroll.in/latest/1003748/delhi-dalit-journalist-briefly-arrested-released-after-social-media-outrage

    This week, the works of two women Dalit writers, Bama and Sukirtharini, and Mahasweta Devi’s well-known short story Draupadi have been dropped by Delhi University. One reason is that the head of the Oversight Committee, a Mr Pandit, does not believe in casteism. How much more Orwellian can you get. The other is that sentiments of the police are hurt by Mahasweta Devi’s seminal work about a tribal woman gangraped at a police station. This explanation when coupled with increasing media control tells you how much our freedoms are under threat. Welcome to the burning of the books.

    https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/du-comes-under-fire-for-dropping-texts-by-dalit-writers/article36129204.ece

    Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist and commentator. She writes on MxMIndia every Tuesday and Friday. Her  views here are personal

     

  • Internet is empowering force for Indian women preparing to be ‘job ready’

    English preferred language for metro women to stay job-ready: Verizon Media study

    By A Correspondent

     

    A new Verizon Media study, which surveyed the habits of women internet users across India, has found that education, career development, women’s empowerment, health and fitness are key areas of interest for online women users in India.

     

    The survey, ‘Spotlight on online habits of young Indian women’ was conducted by Nielsen for Verizon Media, which owns internet brands like Yahoo, Yahoo Cricket, Makers, HuffPost India and AOL. Respondents in the survey, conducted in 12 cities across India in July 2019, included college students, young working women and women mentors between 18-35 years of age.

     

    Insights from the survey reveal that Indian women are honing their skills to get ahead professionally every time they go online.

     

    Said Nikhil Rungta, Country Manager, India, Verizon Media:  “As this survey showed us, the internet is empowering a new breed of Indian women who are coming online and preparing to take their place in the workforce. The right platform and support as a community will enable greater inclusion, boosting participation of Indian women at the workplace,”

     

     

  • Refresh offers a more unified experience across Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Cricket and Yahoo Lifestyle

    Yahoo India homepage gets a new look

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo has announced its new homepage along with updates to Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Cricket and Yahoo Lifestyle for users in India. These changes attempt to provide a more unified experience across our homepage and core properties, offering a better way to consume, engage, and discover the quality content our users have come to expect.

     

    The new Yahoo homepage makes it easier to get all latest news and content, in less time, notes a communique, adding:Users no longer need to open individual articles in multiple browser tabs; instead, they can simply scroll through related stories inline.

     

  • Agreements unlock the power of Yahoo's global platform bringing premium UK publisher content to a worldwide audience

    Yahoo announces global content partnerships with leading publishers

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo has announced that it has inked content distribution deals with a host of leading UK publishing partners, including The Telegraph, the Guardian, The Independent, the Evening Standard and Hearst UK. The move enables publishers to distribute content via a curated feed, created in partnership with Yahoo in five countries, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, India and Singapore. Yahoo claims over one billion monthly users worldwide and the agreements open up a new channel for British publishers to reach this vast global audience.

     

    In addition, the partnerships create a new revenue stream for publishers, with content set to be monetised via a revenue share model using Yahoo’s powerful cross-platform native advertising marketplace, Yahoo Gemini. Advertising will appear within each article to reach and engage relevant audiences with highly-targeted content.

     

    Said Greg Miall, Director of Global Partnerships, Yahoo: “Yahoo is committed to building the richest set of premium and personalised content experiences for our users and we are thrilled to use the power of our global platform to work with such high calibre publishers. The fact that Yahoo can do one global deal, opening up UK publishers’ content to such a vast global audience is hugely exciting.”

     

  • On their tenth anniversary, Mobile Apps start eating their own

    Yahoo’s Flurry Analytics announces 2016 State of Mobile report

    By A Correspondent

     

    Flurry Analytics, part of the Yahoo Mobile Developer Suite announced its annual global mobile and application usage study. In its eighth year, the study offers interesting insights on global mobile app usage and trends from the last year on over 2.1 billion smart devices and 3.2 trillion sessions.

     

    Throughout 2016, which was also the last year of the first decade for mobile apps, the industry managed to squeak-out another 365 days of growth.

     

    Mobile Growth Hits Critical Mass: Usage Up 11 per cent

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    “Over the last year, the Flurry footprint grew to track more than 940,000 applications, across 2.1 billion devices, in 3.2 trillion sessions. In this context, we define app usage as a user opening an app and recording what we call a “session,” as well as the amount of time spent in the application,” said Simon Khalaf, SVP, Yahoo. He added, “Compared to the year prior, overall app usage grew by 11% and time-spent in apps grew by 69%. In previous years, we saw all app categories growing in tandem; however, this year the story is different. After shifting thewebandtelevision to the rearview mirror, mobile apps started eating their own, with session and time-spent growth in some app categories occurring at the expense of others. While Messaging and Social applications drove year-over-year session growth at 44%, the Personalization category gave up a staggering 46% in session usage. This steep decline in usage can be attributed to diminishing value for users of these products.”

     

    Social and Daily Habit apps dominate time spent on Mobile

    Looking into 2016’s most notable categories, here’s how time-spent trends shook out:

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    2016: The Year Social ate Media and Telcos: Time spent in Social and Messaging apps grew by an astounding 394% over the last year, proving to be the driver that helped mobile achieve its year-over-year time-spent growth of 69%. This is a result of consumers using their social and messaging apps as their voice and video calling utilities, as well as the phenomenon we callCommuntainment. With news and magazines sessions down 5 per cent and Music, Media and users continue Entertainment up only 1per cent, it’s safe to say that Social has absorbed the media industry.

     

    Sticky Apps tied to daily habits: Business and Finance (up 43per centin time-spent) and Sports (up 25per centin time-spent) categories were immune to growth decay because they are intrinsically centered around mobile activities and rely on real time data. We anticipate further growth in these categories as to shift daily habits away from traditional media channels, i.e., watching live sports, market reports and the morning news on their TVs, to the apps on their phones.

     

    Video Killed the Gaming Star: Gaming, the app category formerly known as “the darling of the mobile industry,” saw time-spent decline by 4per centyear-over-year. Users are increasingly comfortable paying their way through games, with the mobile gaming industry seeing a strong increase in revenuesaccordingto Apple’s latest App Store report. Additionally, gaming remains a hit-driven industry. This year’s first “hit”, Pokemon Go, faded relatively fast, as consumers lost interest in the game, only returning for marquee holiday events. Another notable hit, Super Mario Run, was released too late in the year to make a difference for the overall engagement numbers.

     

    Phabletsreign supreme

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    As forecasted in last year’s report, we have seen phablet devices becoming the dominant form factor across the globe, capturing 41% of market share. While our prediction didn’t completely come to fruition, users continue to find value in the larger screen size. This directly correlates to the growth in media consumption and social engagement app categories. As less mature smartphone markets adopt larger phones, Phablet share will continue to eat away at medium phones and completely eliminate small phones.

     

     

  • Yahoo Tiles enables brands to tell visually compelling and immersive stories on mobile devices in a post-tap environment

    Yahoo rolls out new mobile ad format ‘Tiles’ in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo announced the availability of Yahoo Tiles, a new mobile ad format that brands can leverage to reach consumers through engaging, interactive content.

     

    Yahoo Tiles enables brands to tell visually compelling and immersive stories on mobile devices in a post-tap environment. When consumers click on a mobile ad, they are taken to a custom mobile landing page that can feature 360-degree video and images, as well as dynamic and interactive features such as video, swipeable images, and social feeds. With its lightweight design, Yahoo Tiles delivers a more engaging and seamless consumer experience for mobile native, video and display ads.

     

    Available for advertisers in India through Yahoo Gemini and BrightRoll, Yahoo Tiles ensures that brands tell a more creative and compelling story across Android and iOS devices. With time spent consuming media on mobile devices surpassing traditional TV, Yahoo is building advertising solutions that help marketers take advantage of this growth. Yahoo Tiles helps advertisers reach diverse audiences at scale, including more than 600 million mobile users on Yahoo and across our extended network. Brands can work with Yahoo’s ad creative tech team to build, support, and scale their mobile campaigns.

     

  • 90% consumers use only mobile devices in their path to purchase for Travel, Music and Movies*

    Yahoo-Mindshare study analyses online shopping behavior of Indian consumers

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo and Mindshare announced the findings of their joint study of the India market: ‘Mobile Consumer Journey – 2016’. The study is based on research of users’ shopping behavior across devices for 31 different categories including travel, electronic devices and consumer packaged goods. Findings highlight the dominant play of mobile devices in the consumer’s purchase decisions.

     

    The study throws light on the role of mobile in a consumer’s purchase journey – how the devices get used in different stages, key drivers and barriers to the final purchase decision, consumers’ preferences of how to buy and where to buy, top selling categories on mobile, and cities that see the most mobile transactions. The study aims to equip marketers with insights on India, to sharpen their digital and mobile commerce initiatives and build a strong mobile strategy.

     

    Commenting on the findings, M A Parthasarathy, Chief Product Officer, Mindshare South Asia said, “The ecommerce landscape in India is perhaps the most dynamic in the world, largely due to the rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem. This research highlights the role of mobile from the top of funnel to the bottom and how it varies across product categories. It will help us develop sharper, more connected communication strategies for brands.”

     

    Francis Che, Head of Insights, APAC, Yahoo added, “The study shows that the consumer path-to-purchase is turning more complex and nonlinear, with mobile at the center of this evolution. As mobile devices become more important in the consumer’s last mile of purchase decision, brands need to build targeted, more seamless shopping experience across all channels to strengthen sales and acquire new customers.”

     

    Key findings from the study:

    1. Drivers and barriers of online transactions:

    a. 31 per cent of online shoppers cite saving time or effort as their main reason for shopping online.

    b. Attractive discounts and promotions is another key driver as stated by 28 per cent of online shoppers.

    c. 21 per cent cite the convenience to shop anywhere, anytime as a big draw.

     

    The barriers that keep them away from shopping online include – non-authentic goods, unreliable delivery and lack of quality control.

    2. A city-wise break-up for mobile transactions show that 75 per cent online shoppers in Kolkata are open to mobile transactions followed by Chennai with 64 and Delhi with 57 per cent. Surprisingly online shoppers in metros like Mumbai & Bangalore seem more ‘cautiously open’ with less than 35 per cent of them preferring mobile transactions over other mode of payments.

     

    3. Mobile “browse” tends to convert to mobile “buy”

    a. Of the total number of consumers browsing for products on mobile, 79% prefer buying on a mobile device compared to 9% on PC/laptop and 12% in a physical store.

    b. Clearly, brands have a big window of opportunity – from creating awareness to final purchase decision – to connect and engage with their target audiences on mobile devices.

     

    4. Distinctive consumer journeys by category Online shoppers are more likely to use their mobile device to make regular or impulse purchases rather than expensive, high consideration purchases.

    a. Over 90% of the consumers use mobile devices for quick and frequent purchases of Travel, Music & Movies.

    b. 36% consumers prefer buying high-consideration products like Insurance on their PC/ Laptop. 24% consumers prefer buying health supplements on PC/ Laptop.

    c. Categories with significant in-store purchases include Personal Hygiene (30%) & Luxury Accessories (27%).

     

    5. Categories on the high growth quadrant – ranked by number of consumers buying them on mobile over other modes – include apparel, electronic devices, baby and pet care products. Users are less likely to buy financial services products on mobile as they see these as more complex purchase decisions.

     

  • App delivers an easy-to-navigate summary of the top International news stories twice a day

    Yahoo News Digest now available in India

    By a correspondent

     

    Yahoo has announced the launch of International edition of Yahoo News Digest for both iOS and Android users in India. With this app, users can stay on top of all the need-to-know International news, twice a day, on their mobile phones.

     

    Every morning and night, Yahoo News Digest will deliver a summarized version of the top International news, in an easy-to-navigate design. Using algorithmic and human editorial curation, each story is a collection of “atoms” — articles, maps, Wikipedia entries, videos, and photos — that make it easy for users to “digest” the news quickly. The “Digests” provide a definitive summary of all the top International news so that users can stay on top of what’s happening in the world.

     

    The app covers stories from important news categories like – News, Technology, Sports, Business, World etc. Users can scan the summary, as well as read “Atoms,” which convey different dimensions of the story from the who, what, when, how, and why of a topic.

     

    The Android version of the Yahoo News Digest is built specifically with a new homescreen widget that will display the most recent unread digest for easy viewing. Unlike other homescreen widgets, the Yahoo News Digest widget keeps track of the digests that have been read.

     

    Yahoo News Digest will use the Summly technology, acquired by Yahoo last year.

     

  • The new homepage attempts to power one's daily habits offering the most accessed features upfront

    Yahoo launches new homepage in India

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo India has unveiled a brand new homepage delivering what it says is a “beautiful, modern, intuitive and personal experience”, available across smartphones, tablets and PCs. The new Yahoo Homepage, launched in 6 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and India, makes it easier users to discover all the content they care about – right here on one page from any device of their choice, as per a communiqué.

     

    The navigation has been made simpler with an option of browsing top stories, checking mail, keeping tabs on stocks, checking one’s photos and the weather… all on the homepage.

     

  • The Yahoo Big Idea Chair 2013 awards saw 137 brands represented through 426 entries from 61 agencies

    IBS continues winning spree with Tata Docomo, wins Yahoo Big Idea Chair 2013

    By A Correspondent [updated]

     

    The Blue Frog venue in central Mumbai played host to the fourth independently held Yahoo Big Idea Chair India Awards 2013. The flagship Big Idea Chair was awarded to IBS Unified for conceptualizing ‘Hyper Personalization – the world’s first CRM powered Display campaign’ for Tata Docomo. Meanwhile, GroupM agencies won the highest number of awards at the Yahoo! Big Chair Awards 2013.  The awards this year saw 426 entries from 61 agencies representing work for 137 brands and recognized creativity, innovation and imagination displayed in digital media.

     

    This year, the award invited entries across nine categories: Display Advertising, Online Video Advertising, Social Media, Technology (best use), Mobile Advertising, Search, Digital 360 degree, Content Marketing and the Flagship Yahoo Big Idea Chair.  A 11- member jury judged the entries that represented work for 137 brands

     

    On winning the award, Sabyasachi Mitter, Managing Director, IBS Unified said “We are absolutely delighted to have been awarded the prestigious Yahoo Big Idea Chair. Clearly, digital has tremendous potential for innovation, and we are excited about setting the bar high.”

     

    Nitin Mathur

    Nitin Mathur, Senior Director & Head of Marketing, India & South-east Asia, Yahoo said “Yahoo Big Idea Chair India Awards has become an important annual milestone for the industry. It always throws up highly creative and impactful work, where agencies and brands are breaking grounds with newer possibilities in digital advertising.”

    Speaking on the GroupM wins, Tushar Vyas, Managing Partner- South Asia, GroupM Interaction said, “Over the last year, the digital teams across the GroupM agencies have been winning an award every other day, a testament to the great work and innovations the teams are churning out for our clients. It is great to end the year with six more awards to add to our tally of 204.”

    GroupM Interaction won the Gold for Best Use of Technology for the Heineken Inner Voice Campaign.  Maxus India won four awards including three Silvers and one Bronze. The Silvers were won in the following categories, Best Content Marketing Award for the Mentos Riddle campaign, Best Use of Display for Mathrubhumi Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd and Best Use of Mobile Advertising for the Tata Sky campaign. MEC Global took home one Bronze for the Colgate Mahakumbh Mela activity.  Added Unny Radhakrishnan, Head of Digital, Maxus, “We are happy for the continuing recognition of our work  and also that these awards span different verticals in digital as well as a wide range of brands.”

    In other categories, Viacom 18 won the Digital 360 degree award for ‘MTV India Roadies X’ campaign; Ogilvy & Mather walked away with the Gold for their campaign ‘Blood Search Made Easy’ for Red Cross; PHD took home the Gold for Best Content Marketing for the ‘Ramp Ready Hair’ campaign for Hindustan Lever Limited while the Best Use of Mobile Advertising was clinched by Indigo Consulting & Leo Burnett  for the ‘Donate your Caller Tune’ campaign for World Health Organization; IBS won the Gold for Best Use of Display Advertising for ‘Hyper Personalization’ campaign for Tata Docomo; Ogilvy & Mather took home the Silver in Video Advertising Category for Cadbury Bourneville and IProspect Communicate2 walked away with the Gold for Best with Best Use of Search.

     

  • As per the agreement, Yahoo! has promised not to screw Tumblr up, which will operate independently as a separate business. Tumblr is home to, among several others, Amitabh Bachchan's blog

    Yahoo! to acquire Tumblr, promises “not to screw it up”

    By A Correspondent

     

    Yahoo! Inc and Tumblr announced yesterday that they have reached a definitive agreement for Yahoo! to acquire Tumblr.

     

    “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business,” a communique notes. “David Karp will remain CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.”

     

    With over 300 million monthly unique visitors and 120,000 daily registrations, Tumblr is one of the fastest-growing media networks globally. Its popularity and engagement among creators, curators and audiences of all ages brings a new community of users to the Yahoo! network. The combination of Tumblr+Yahoo! is expected to grow Yahoo!’s audience by 50 percent to more than a billion monthly visitors, and to grow traffic by approximately 20 percent.

     

    The deal offers unique opportunities for both companies. Tumblr can deploy Yahoo!’s personalization technology and search infrastructure to help its users discover creators, bloggers, and content they’ll love. In turn, Tumblr brings 50 billion blog posts (and 75 million more arriving each day) to Yahoo!’s media network and search experiences. The two companies will also work together to create advertising opportunities that are seamless and enhance the user experience.

     

    The total consideration is approximately $1.1 billion, substantially all of which is payable in cash.

     

    “Tumblr is redefining creative expression online,” said Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. “On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn’t be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn’t be more complementary. ”

     

    David Karp, CEO of Tumblr, addressed the Tumblr community, “Our team isn’t changing. Our roadmap isn’t changing. And our mission – to empower creators to make their best work and get it in front of the audience they deserve – certainly isn’t changing. But we’re elated to have the support of Yahoo! and their team who share our dream to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. Tumblr gets better faster with more resources to draw from.”

     

    The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close in the second half of the year.

     

    It may be remembered that in July last year, Amitabh Bachchan moved his blog to Tumblr. The former Tumblr editor-in-chief had then written on the staff blog: “…he’s right here on your dashboard. Go give him a warm welcome and a hearty follow-click.”