More predictions. What 2008 means for Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft? In 2008, while Google is reaching its supreme status with the launch of Google revolutionary health platform and GPhone and more.
in 2008, Yahoo will continue spending the majority of the year trying to figure out its strategy other than saying "we have 500 million users, so we are a player." Yahoo’s main strength, display advertising, is now being challenged more directly by Google and Microsoft. They missed and missed all big opportunities the last 24 months and struggle to integrate their acquisitions. They fell into the trap that acquisitions can make up for the lack of innovation. Let’s face it, Yahoo needs help… a lot of help. Even the brand is getting less relevant other than they have access to lots of traffic. There is a 51% chance that Microsoft will end up buying them. It will happen in the next 90 days. That will give the combined company around 30% share on the ad space. (Jeffrey, you don't have much time! May be it's too late aleady)
In 2008, Microsoft will (once again) fail to gain much traction in any innovation that is Web 2.0. ..Not a difficult one to predict. In the next 12 months, Microsoft will work hard to figure out what do to with aQuantive (and Razorfish). The strategic option is simple, leave them alone. That's probbaly what they will do. Visia will get better, XBox will do well and Office 2007 will get more adoption. Zune..what is it?
In 2008, Facebook will start feeling the challenge of being a real company. It is like a teenager trying out a suit. They will start to have business policy and operations planning and all those things that they'd thought they will never need. They will find their heads deep in the hell of pre IPO work. And they will need a lot of creativity to figure out a way to justify its lofty valuation.
And for AOL, 2008 we will see the final stage since the AOL Time Warner merger. Platform A will likely go public. The company is going through its last phase of brain drain and the rest of AOL will be sold, dismantled or folded into Time Warner. So here’s what I think will happen with AOL. Time Warner is going to phase out the AOL brand name (imagine the yello man slowly walking out of the screen) and rebrand the Internet unit as something else. There’s no value for the AOL brand name to serve as the operating brand for the Internet unit anyway. Besides many of AOL's popular sites are not branded as AOL any, including media gossip site TMZ.com and MapQuest. The AOL chapter will be finally closed. Say goodbye to the yello man.
The key players for 2008 will be Google, Microsoft and Facebook. Yahoo is out. And where's MySpace?
