Interview with Mitch Lazar GM Europe Yahoo! on mobile display advertising and mobile search

I was delighted to spend some quality time with the delightful Mitch Lazar from Yahoo! We didn’t have the longest time so I set out with my agenda and asked him some questions from the top down.
Bena: How is the business doing after the stress (I detailed the past 7 months of Yahoo! in about 10 words)
Mitch: We have a solid company and a solid business. Today we are perfecting on what we have announced in the past. With our very early mover advantage we have the experience to learn from our products and develop them into stronger missiles for mobile.
Bena: So you are saying that the products are evolving to the best of breed now as you have the early experience
Mitch: Most definitely. We are now open. We have a full suite of products and services and today we are announcing that they are open and can be completely controlled by the user. We love it if you use and want Yahoo! services but if you don’t – then go enjoy and really choose what gives you the most compelling user experience.
Bena: Yes. My biggest issue in the past with Go was that it was very monolithic encompassing Yahoo products only.
Mitch: Yes so we had great feedback on Go and now this evolution moves it to an open service.
Bena: I do believe mobile is very strong within Yahoo! Is the mobile business for sale?
Mitch: It is not my decision to sell mobile.
Bena: Are you the mobile display advertising leader?
Mitch: Yes.
Bena: So how do you continue to monetize in a recession?
Mitch: Great question as new business models will develop. Mobile advertising is still in the early stages and we simple in the best place to embark and move forward above and beyond our products and services. We do display well but new monetisation, affordable CPM that will make brands bite will drive the business through the next few months.
We are at a position where Overture became the accidental empire and Yahoo! mobile products once more can emulate this. There is no magi about the challenges ahead but lets be realistic and move forward together to build an eco-system.What we think?During the whole meeting with Mitch I was simply amazed thinking. Wow this man has a lovely, warming personality. He was convincing and personable as well as being very very formed in the way he addressed the question. I was impressed and more demos and infos on the new Yahoo! products coming soon.

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