Flicker of Hope: Tiny Web Companies Bubble to Surface for Yahoo Executive
Following deals like last year's $650 million purchase of MySpace.com's parent by News Corp., there has been much talk of a new Internet "bubble" involving smaller companies selling to Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and others. We talked about this with Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo's vice president for product strategy, who blogs at
www.elatable.com.* * *
Yahoo has made a number of big-money purchases of small companies like Flickr and Del.icio.us. Why?
There's something special and interesting about what is going on now. Whether you call it "Web 2.0" or the "democratization of publishing," it's something that is true to the initial vision and roots of our company. You can look at Yahoo Groups, or the personalization of My Yahoo, which dates back to 1997. Yahoo isn't suddenly jumping on some bandwagon.
So is there a bubble now?
A bubble implies it will all come crashing down and none of it was real and all of it was a mirage. There is something very real going on here, and I don't want to lose sight of that.
How would you describe the market?
Well, we are seeing a proliferation of companies, and I use the term loosely. We rarely encounter a "John Doe" anymore; now it's "John Doe Inc." And we are seeing Computer Science 101 projects being presented to us as acquisition candidates.
How many pitches do you get every week?
I make it my job to see dozens, and my team probably looks at hundreds. We have a weekly slot set aside for the best of those. I want to make sure that we at Yahoo are open and receptive to the full spectrum of possibilities, from the 18-year-old entrepreneur who cooks something up using his allowance money, through to the seasoned entrepreneur.
What are those hundreds of proposals like?
Everything from the ridiculous to the sublime. But you can't just send them off to your spam folder because there are diamonds in the rough.
Finish this sentence. "I'll scream if I hear another business plan that says ..."
'We are the Flickr for blank.' When we acquired Flickr, we saw an onslaught of copycat companies. People take a good idea and apply every modifier and variant possible. A venture-capital friend of mine said that one morning he saw a 'MySpace for toddlers,' and later that same day, he saw 'MySpace for seniors.' He thought he was going crazy. Another example is Dogster. I own a dog, and Rashi is a happy and proud member of Dogster. But where does it end? Birdster? Hamsterer?
What's wrong with someone starting a company just to sell it to Yahoo?
You want people in it for the right reason. Selling to a big company typically isn't the right reason. We like people who are passionate about their product. If you have people with a pure financial motive, in my experience, the product suffers. Certainly, someone could figure out a way to scratch a user's itch and sell the product to us, and perhaps it would make great sense. But we are also looking not just for new products but also to be able to bring the world's best and brightest people into Yahoo.
So what should entrepreneurs do?
Find something you would do irrespective of financial motive or whether it will be the next big thing. In that case, you win either way.
又见网络泡沫？
自从去年新闻集团(News Corp.)斥资6.5亿美元收购了MySpace.com的母公司，有关网络再次出现新泡沫的议论就不绝于耳，其中还涉及一些被雅虎(Yahoo Inc.)、谷歌(Google Inc.)等收购的小公司。就此《华尔街日报》采访了雅虎负责产品战略的副总裁布拉德利?霍罗维茨(Bradley Horowitz)。（他在
www.elatable.com上开辟了自己的博客。）
问：雅虎花不少钱收购了像Flickr、Del.icio.us这样的小公司，你们为什么要这样做呢？
答：在收购方面，现在有些事情很有趣也很特殊。不管你称之为“网络2.0”或者“出版民主化”也好，收购仍然符合雅虎最初的设想和根本性原则。你可以看看Yahoo Groups、或是从1997年开始就有的“我的雅虎”(My Yahoo)的个性化设置。雅虎并不是突然之间开始跟风收购小公司的。
问：那么现在是否存在泡沫呢？
答：有泡沫就意味著有破灭的那一天，因此它们都是虚幻、不真实的。而现在的业务是实实在在的，我不想对此视而不见。
问：你如何评价眼下的收购市场？
答：如今大大小小的公司层出不穷，我这里指的公司意义十分宽泛，我们现在已经很少碰到张三、李四个人，都变成了张三、李四公司。每天我们都会收到很多技术项目提案，要我们收购它们。
问：你每周大概要审核多少个项目？
答：我给自己定的目标是几十个，我的团队可能要看数百个。我们会把每周最好的项目单独放到一边。我希望确保雅虎员工能够以开放的心态积极接纳各种事物，既不排斥用自己零花钱创业的18岁年轻人，也不排斥成熟老道的创业者。
问：这都是些什么样的项目提案？
答：什么样的都有，可笑荒谬的、卓越出众的...你不能把它们一股脑儿扔进垃圾箱了事，因为其中可能隐藏著璞玉。
问：你看到什么样的商业计划书时会兴奋得大声尖叫？
答：像Flickr那样的计划书。在收购Flickr之前，我们看到了太多缺乏创意的公司。有了好的创意后，人们就想尽办法在上面进行各种各样的发挥。我的一个搞风险投资的朋友告诉我，他上午时看到的还是“幼儿MySpace”，但到了下午就变成了“老年MySpace”。他自己都快疯了。另一个例子是Dogster。我有一条狗拉什(Rashi)就是这个网站的一名快乐而骄傲的成员。不知道这样的创意最后会发展成什么样？是为鸟儿们开辟的Birdster？还是为仓鼠们开辟的Hamsterer？
问：那些自己创建了公司、最后又把公司卖给雅虎的人都有哪些特质？
答：我们收购这些公司都有一定的道理。一心想著把公司卖给大公司的人通常都不会得到我们的青睐。我们喜欢那些对自己的产品充满激情的人。从我的经验看，要是一个人纯粹是出于经济目的，其产品一定不会太好。当然，也可能有些人想方设法摸准了用户的喜好，然后把产品卖给我们，这样也合情合理。但是我们看重的不仅仅是新产品，还要考虑这样做是否能把世界上最好、最聪明的人带到雅虎。
问：那么你能给创业者一些建议吗？
答：找到你愿意完全不顾及经济利益也要去做的事情，别去在乎它是否能成就大业。这样一来，你总能有所收获。
Lee Gomes
