Preview

Yahoo and Amazon: Building a Competitive Advantage

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1627 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Yahoo and Amazon: Building a Competitive Advantage
Running Header: Yahoo and Amazon: Building a Competitive Advantage

student name professor Bus599 Strategic Management date: 1. Describe, in brief, the histories of both of Amazon.com and Yahoo.com, and determine the core business of each. Yahoo and Amazon have been seeking to have a competitive advantage for years. Since they were incorporated, the companies have experienced a mix of challenges and success as they strive to gain market share. To start with, Yahoo was established in 1995. Yahoo is one of the global technology companies that compete for the growing number online users in the recent world. The company delivers digital content and experiences on various platforms including mobile devices. Furthermore, the company provides properties and online services. Marketing services is a major business for the company. Generally, the company earns revenues from text-based links to advertisers, search advertising, display advertising, and other essential sources. The company has five core segments that include Search and Market Places, Communications and Communities, Developers and Platform Offerings, Advertise and Publisher offerings and Services, and Media. Lastly, the company has operations in approximately 60 countries. Nonetheless, Amazon was incorporated in 1995. It offers online retailing services to customers across the world. Amazon focuses on convenience, selection, and price. In addition to the direct retailing services, the company allows other small and medium sized businesses to sell their products through the company’s websites. The customers and business are able to complete their orders and transactions in Amazon’s websites. Other individuals such as authors, musicians, and filmmakers are also able to sell their products using the same platform. Millions of products are offered through the website. The website may be accessed through PCs, and even mobile applications. The core segments of the company include the



References: Amit, R. &. (2012). Creating value through business model innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(3), 41-49. Coulson-Thomas, C. (2013). Implementing strategies and policies. , . Strategic Direction, 29(3), 33-35. doi:doi:10.1108/02580541311304643 Hill, C. &. (2013). Strategic management: An integrated approach (10th ed.). Independence, KY: Cengage. Mellat-Parast, M. (2013). Supply chain quality management. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 30(5), 511-529. doi:10.1108/02656711311315495

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Amazon.com is a publicly traded worldwide online retail company founded by Jeff Bezos on July 5, 1995 in Seattle, Washington. The company originally began as an online bookstore as Bezos felt there was a high demand for literature, and books had a low price point and a huge selection of titles available in print. Technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently and at lower prices. Since 1995, Amazon has significantly expanded its product selection, international retail websites, and worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service centers. Today, Amazon retail websites offer everything from toys and video games to MP3 downloads and collectible items (amazon.com, 2014). Amazons business model is fairly simple; to sell various products and goods online at an affordable cost to consumers. Amazon has managed to not only achieve this business model but they have also managed to consistently expand and become the largest online retailer to date. To keep up with global demand, Amazon had to expand its products and services offered while continuing to forecast consumer’s needs. “In 2000, Amazon.com began to offer its best-of-breed e-commerce platform to other retailers and to individual sellers. Today, hundreds of thousands of world-class retail brands and individual sellers increase their sales and reach new customers by leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. Partners work with Amazon Services to power their e-commerce offerings from end-to-end, including technology services, merchandising, customer service, and order fulfillment. Other branded merchants leverage Amazon.com as an incremental sales channel for their new merchandise. Over 2 million third-party sellers participate in Amazon where they offer new, used, and…

    • 891 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bus 320 Final Paper

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Founded in 1995 by Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com has become one of the largest known online stores in the world. In 1995, Amazon.com sold its first book online, which was shipped from Bezos’s garage in Bellevue, Washington (Amazon.com Mission Statement, 2012). Many may not know that Amazon.com had a slow start because their online layout was not appealing. Within a few years Bezos attracted a few investors who took interest in his venture and invested approximately $140,000. Bezos decided to use the money to create a more appealing website to attract more customers. The sales for the next three years surpassed Bezos’s expectations. After analyzing the sales data, he found that people were not only purchasing domestically, but also from around the world. Amazon.com has grown from a small company to a worldwide business in just a few short years. This rapid growth requires a company to reevaluate how it does business if it plans to expand or maintain its marketplace for the future.…

    • 1741 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In planning their business, Amazon had to take into account all internal and external factors to avoid catastrophic troubles while beginning their company. The same concept holds true, even today. Internal and external factors affect the planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (four functions of management) functions of management involved in the successful and continual growth of Amazon’s company. Their company began as a planned rival to Google and Microsoft, for lead in the online retail industry. With their original focus, Amazon used four different key values to help their business off-the-ground, and stay focused on their personalized progress. Their ability to zone-in on customers, dynamic pricing, personalized service, and brand variety was their plan for success (Amazon, 2011). It became a primary goal for Amazon to make their customers’ online shopping experience easier and more enjoyable while supplying dynamic pricing options and the convenience of a ‘one-stop’ retail ordering system. The business model of Amazon included selling books, compact discs, movies, electronics, and games. Currently, Amazon has the largest online retail selection because it extends its inventory out to offer home goods,…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Amazon.com, from a strategic approach, is dominating the world-wide-web. They have become the world leader in online sales of books, music, videos, movies and other products and services. Amazon knew that the Internet could be used as a distribution channel, thus reducing their supply chain relations. By making these strategic advances, Amazon was able to achieve and sustain their competitive advantage.…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Strategic Innovation

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Chesbrough, H. (2010) Business Model Innovation: Opportunities and Barriers. Long Range Planning, 43 (2–3), 354–363. Retrieved 6/01/2013…

    • 1253 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Q1. In what ways does Amazon, as a company, evidence the willingness and ability to collaborate?…

    • 1735 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Amazon is an online based selling business. Amazon.com sells thousands of items ranging from clothing, beauty products, books, electronic, plus so much more (“Essortment”, 2011). Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, focusing on the selling of books (“Essortment”, 2011). Following the creation of Amazon investors took interest, putting money into website design and expanding the range of items sold (“Essortment”, 2011). The decision to sell a variety of items brought success but in 2001 revenue had dropped and employees were being laid off (“Essortment”, 2011). Bezos, the original founder, came up with the idea of recruiting companies to sell their products through the Amazon website, this move generated the needed sales to get Amazon back on its feet and generate profits for all companies involved (“Essortment”, 2011).…

    • 517 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Globalization of Amazon

    • 4880 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Amazon.com, Inc. was founded by Jeff Bezos out of his own garage in July 1994 under the name of Cadabra. It went online in as Amazon.com in 1995. Since that time it has never looked back and is now the world's largest online retailer. It is an American multinational electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. With a total revenue of US$ 61.09 billion, it has a total of 88,400 employees as of December, 2012. At first it started as an online bookstore, but soon it diversified itself selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. It also produces consumer electronics mainly the Amazon Kindle e-book reader and the Kindle Fire tablet computer . It is a major provider of cloud computing services. It has its presence in many countries. Amazon has separate retail websites for many countries such as US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and China, with international shipping to certain other countries for some of its products.…

    • 4880 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yahoo Case Study

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In 1994 Yahoo! was created by Jerry Yang and David Filo. They started off this new venture by creating an internet browser that provided users with a platform to browse and view the internet. Yahoo! began generating revenue through online advertisements, ad placement fees, promotions and sponsorships. In 1995 Yahoo! was incorporated and through its initial IPO in April of 1996 were able to raise $38.8 million through initial share sales. In the beginning phase of the company, Yahoo! continued to see substantial growth in these revenues until the early 2000’s. As many other companies began to emerge, Yahoo! started to lose some of the market share they had for so long dominated. In 2006, they recognized a significant decrease in net income. In 2005 net income was reported at $1,896 million, an all time high for Yahoo, and within one year they experienced a decrease of almost 60% in net income with $751 million reported at year end of 2006. Yahoo!’s homepage had a plethora of services that it offered to users such as e-mail, music, mobile, small business services, health, finance, games, movies, personals, etc. With no singular goal in mind but to offer as many services in one stop, they began to lose more and more market share over time. They acquired other companies with hopes of integrating them and remaining competitive but were unsuccessful. In the meantime, Google and Facebook were flourishing in the emerging technological market.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Q1: Summarize Barnes & Noble’s business strategy and business model based in the case descriptions. How have these strategy and business model been evolved since the case was written?…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cultural Diversity 101

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In this assignment, Amazon.com and Yahoo.com 's history will be described along with determining the core of both businesses. Next, the key strategic differences that have impacted the relative success of both Amazon.com and Yahoo.com will be determined. After determining the differences, I will compare and contrast the approach to strategic planning that each company has pursued in order to achieve a competitive advantage. Next, I will analyze the manner in which each company 's distinctive competencies help to shape the strategies that each company pursues. Last but not least, there will be a recommendation of one functional level strategy for each company which will prescribe the essential ways in which each company may achieve superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and customer responsiveness.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Tesco

    • 7490 Words
    • 30 Pages

    o Finch P. (2004) Supply chain risk management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Vol. 9 Issue 2, pp.183-196;…

    • 7490 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Executive Summary of Amazon

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Amazon.com is a customer centric company. They put more effort in improving their system to make the experience of customer more comfortable so that he keeps on returning to the website. Jeffery Bezos who is the founder of the Amazon.com started this company after seeing the use of internet increasing rapidly.…

    • 3297 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Amazon.Com Case Studies

    • 3591 Words
    • 15 Pages

    The study comprises of Amazon.com which started its history by selling books and now one of the online market leaders globally not only for books but products from various categories. Company started with a mission to be Earth’s most customer centric company.…

    • 3591 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Yahoo! Inc. is a global US Internet Corporation, founded in California in 1994, which provides a range of products and content, including email, media streaming and downloads. Surviving the dot.com crash in 2001, Yahoo concentrated on pursuing partnerships with telecoms and internet providers to compete with AOL, they acquired smaller search engines and built their own technology to control the search results. There were various merger discussions held between Yahoo and Microsoft over the course of 2005-2007, however all attempts to form a merger were unsuccessful. The company had maintained it’s value proposition from 2005-2009 as one of the market leaders in search, it had healthy top line growth however it suffered from falling profits, web traffic and share price and this resulted in the appointment of their new CEO, Marissa Mayer in 2012.…

    • 1534 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays