Web 2.0 Expo: Jeff Weiner of Yahoo! Interview

Wednesday’s keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo was Yahoo’s Executive Vice President of their Network Division. Jeff first covered what the network division consists of:

• Email/communications


• Media business so we package and program content


• Search business


• We tie it together through the front door of Yahoo.

  Then the following is a paraphrased version of the discussion between Jeff Weiner and John Battelle.
  
  John: Yahoo! reported earnings yesterday and Wall St. yawned. The statements from Terry Semel that Panama is doing well in January raised expectations and then you didn’t blow away expectations. Compared to the Google earnings which they seem to knock out of the park, why does it feel like they are running circles around you?

  Jeff: We ended up in the middle of the range provided by Terry and Sue, so we’re extremely happy with the results of Panama so far and they will get better each quarter. We’re executing and we’re on the right path.

  John: What about Google? Why am I compelled to ask them about you? You have the biggest network on the web, but everyone focuses their attention on Google?

  Jeff: They’ve had a great run over the past 3-4 years, and Yahoo has had some slip-ups. But we’re building for the long term to be around in 11-12 years. We’ve had some nice attention recently with Panama, Yahoo! Pipes, and our deal with the newspaper consortium.

  John: Do you think there is a distinction in approach between the way Google and Yahoo view the rights of content holders?

  Jeff: I don’t know if there is a distinction, but we do value the rights of intellectual property holders. We’re building the largest video network with NBC, Universal, Comcast, Myspace, etc. And our recent relationship that was announced with Viacom is another example of media companies wanting to work with us.

  John: Isn’t there a big game of Stratego going on here? Are people working with you because they don’t want to work with Google?

  Jeff: I don’t think it’s because of Google, I think we provide value that others don’t. We work with media companies well and package content better than anyone. There is a reason we’re #1 in

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