Yahoo! perking up for a market share battle
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | September 18, 2006 | Share This
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According to a recent report from HitWise, Google’s mammoth share of the search market has crept even higher this month, now crossing the 60% barrier. The closest competitor is Yahoo!, nearly 40 percentage points back, at 22.6%. Wow. That’s a pretty wide chasm to cross, and one that begs the question: Will any other search engine ever catch up to Google?
Our friend Andrew Goodman from Traffick explored the topic in a post this morning by examining other markets, such as microchips and razors, where a clear #1 has been challenged for supremacy. His basic conclusion is that Yahoo! and the rest of the engines shouldn’t expect any drastic changes in the market anytime soon. Google’s lead is sizeable, and the relatively low cost of entry for new competitors means that a new #2 altogether may potentially emerge and take Yahoo!’s place over the next few years.
Yahoo!’, for one, is not planning to sit back and wait to find out whether Andrew’s right. Instead, they’ve decided to start bribing users to switch.
More specificallly, Yahoo! is launching a multimillion dollar media blitz this Thursday in an attempt to woo users away from the competition. The campaign will include television and radio commercials among other creatives. Most interesting is a partnership that the company has formed with Dunkin’ Donuts, to provide a coupon free coffee to any user who sets Yahoo! as their browser’s homepage this Friday.
It’s hard to say whether this tactic is going to be successful. I’m confused as to how the promotion will actually work. How can Yahoo! confirm that someone actually changed the settings in their browser? Will the coupon be distributed via a widget on each user’s personalized homepage? Or will they simply provide a coupon code or link (that will quickly make its way across the Web, irregardless of whether or not people switch their homepage)? If the end goal is increased usage, then perhaps they should focus the promotion on something that…you know… actually showcases the engines’ capabilities. I guess we’ll know more before Friday.
At any rate, Yahoo! can rest easy knowing that at least one sucker will buy in. As a caffeine junkie, and a long-time Dunkin’ Donuts aficionado, Yahoo! has assured itself my screen real estate for at least a couple of hours on Friday. (Although, at roughly $0.70 retail, would it have killed Yahoo! to throw in a donut or two?)
Topics: Advertising: Offline, Google, Search: News, Yahoo! |
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