The CEO Of Buzzfeed Says Marissa Mayer Has Made A Strategic Mistake
Brad Barket/Getty
In April, Buzzfeed raised $50 million from Silicon Valley's fanciest venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, at a $850 million valuation.
Things are going well there.
So, it's worth hearing what Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti has to say about things.
Yesterday over coffee, Peretti told me something interesting.
He said he can't figure out the sense of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer's strategy.
He noted that Yahoo seems to be doing two things.
In media, it's investing in big media stars like Katie Couric, David Pogue, and Bobbi Brown. It's investing in longform video content to compete with comedies and drama from HBO and Netflix.
Then, on the other side of the spectrum, Yahoo is building consumer tech products. It's trying to build the next app that everyone will use instead of Gmail, Instagram, or Snapchat.
Peretti told me he thinks this strategy is a big mistake.
He said that Mayer, perhaps because she grew up at Google, seems to be taking on the competition where it is strongest.
"I'm not saying that Yahoo is doomed or anything," Peretti wrote me in a follow-up email today. "I just think it is a strategic mistake to take on big media where they are strongest (stars, scripted shows, etc) and take on big tech where they are strongest (email, mobile tech, social networks, search, etc), especially when there is a huge open space at the intersection of media and tech where it hard for other big cos to compete."
"They are needlessly picking the harder path."
"But who knows it might still work!"
- Manchester United named world’s most valuable football club! MLS dominates top 50 list - the Messi effect?
- Rahul Dravid will have to reapply if he wants to continue as head coach after June: Jay Shah
- BPCL shares rally 5% after earnings announcement
- Markets bounce back in early trade on firm global trends; buying in ITC, Reliance
- Rupee trades in narrow range against US dollar in early trade