Remember that old HN post where someone actually intentionally clicked on a Taboola ad, then attempted to get find an answer to whatever question it was claiming to answer on the landing page / site?
Ad Tech, Mail, Finance, Sports (especially fantasy football is big), TechCrunch, Engadget.
Mail is a lot of legacy users, Finance and Sports are actually decently liked in their circles, TechCrunch and Engadget you might not know are owned by Yahoo.
Ad Tech had three major units, two of which are being shut down by this move. They were once third place after Google and Facebook, but I think Amazon and the trade desk have overtaken them since.
At least they're a little more honest about why this is happening:
"Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone stressed that the layoffs are not attributable to financial challenges, but rather, strategic changes to the company's Yahoo for Business advertising unit, which is not profitable. "
Unfortunately I can't speak to the quality of Yahoo's ad inventory but that might say a lot in and of itself (the partnership with Taboola certainly doesn't fill my mental "ROAS" with confidence).
It looks like there was a little too much money sloshing around in the ad space and the pullback is starting to show up in layoffs. Granted there's definitely some fat to trim in the ad business in the form of account managers that are basically just inside-sales.
I really hope that a lot of these (presumably) talented employees that have been laid off from these various companies go out on their own and take down these established businesses for good.
12 comments
[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 40.8 ms ] threadOuch! Taboola is the subprime advertising of subprime advertising. It's kinda shocking that it doesn't get blocked by malware filters.
Good times.
> These cuts will immensely help profitability and help us "go on offense"
i.e. "Dead people can't catch Cordyceps"
Mail is a lot of legacy users, Finance and Sports are actually decently liked in their circles, TechCrunch and Engadget you might not know are owned by Yahoo.
Ad Tech had three major units, two of which are being shut down by this move. They were once third place after Google and Facebook, but I think Amazon and the trade desk have overtaken them since.
Then I had a prolonged illness where I couldn't use my old Yahoo e-mail accounts.
They deleted my e-mails. ALL of them.
Now "THEY" are being deleted.
Maybe there is a just universe after all...
"Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone stressed that the layoffs are not attributable to financial challenges, but rather, strategic changes to the company's Yahoo for Business advertising unit, which is not profitable. "
Unfortunately I can't speak to the quality of Yahoo's ad inventory but that might say a lot in and of itself (the partnership with Taboola certainly doesn't fill my mental "ROAS" with confidence).
It looks like there was a little too much money sloshing around in the ad space and the pullback is starting to show up in layoffs. Granted there's definitely some fat to trim in the ad business in the form of account managers that are basically just inside-sales.
I really hope that a lot of these (presumably) talented employees that have been laid off from these various companies go out on their own and take down these established businesses for good.