Yahoo to cement Facebook ties, bolster mobile applications

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo! Inc. chief executive officer Marissa Mayer said she plans to focus on mobile applications and strengthening ties to Facebook Inc. to bolster turnaround efforts at the biggest US Web portal.

"A lot of the strengths of Facebook are available to Yahoo users," Mayer said yesterday at an investor conference in San Francisco hosted by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. "That's something we want to build upon. We have a real commitment to bringing valuable content to our users."

Since Mayer arrived as CEO last year, Yahoo has ceded share in its core business of display advertising. This year, Yahoo's share of the U.S. market will slip to 8 per cent, from 9.3 per cent in 2012, according to researcher EMarketer Inc. Google Inc. will widen its lead to 18 per cent from 15 per cent last year, while Facebook will advance to 15 per cent from 14 per cent.

To court users and advertisers, Mayer said she'll focus on "the dozen or so applications that people use all the time on their phone." That means slimming down from the 60 to 75 or so applications Yahoo now offers, she said.