As Yahoo cuts staff, CEO Marissa Mayer courts developers
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer tried to convince a crowd of roughly 1,000 mobile developers Thursday that they should use Yahoo platforms, even as the tech giant undergoes dramatic cuts that could change the face of the company.
“We’re continuing to invest in tools that help developers build great apps, reach new audiences and build them into great businesses,” Mayer said.
Yahoo unveiled tools for its mobile analytics platform Flurry, such as the ability to filter by gender, age and location how people are using a mobile app, and ways to better track ads.
The company said it will release a Flurry app for Apple and Android devices, as well as a tool that will help developers track analytics for their apps for Apple’s tvOS.
The Sunnyvale company is hoping that more developers will use Flurry and that data gleaned from it will help them hone their products — and give Yahoo more customer information that it can use to boost its advertising business and improve its products.
Research firm eMarketer estimates that Yahoo will capture roughly $1 billion in U.S. mobile ad revenue this year, just 2.5 percent of the market.