Everything about Yahoo seems vaguely up in the air right now. Ever since an employee leaked a slide show from a company presentation that revealed which parts of Yahoo were being sent to the graveyard, Yahoo fans have wondered at the fate of their most beloved services. After all, even immensely popular sites like Delicious were dropped because they were unprofitable and “didn’t fit with the company vision.” Another popular service that fans have been worried about is Flickr, but Yahoo representative Blake Irving has given us a solid response on Flickr’s livelihood.
This response came in the form of a Twitter post formed as a Q & A. “Q. Is Yahoo! committed to Flickr?” Irving began. “A. Hell yes we are! We love this product and team.” The post also confirmed that the Flickr product is profitable for the company.
This tweet may well have been a response from some fairly incorrect conclusions drawn by the Flickr user, Thomas Hawk, who estimated that Flickr only brings in about $50 million to Yahoo each year — which may not even be enough to cover the site’s cost, considering that they host something to the tune of five billion pictures. Hawk’s conclusions led to several news stories which questioned whether or not Flickr would survive.
In addition to this very clear “hell yes” from Irving (who, as the Chief Product Officer over at Yahoo, probably does know what he’s talking about), Flickr’s Director of Engineering (Cal Henderson) stated that Hawk had made calculations that were “deeply flawed” since they were based on pro membership fees rather than advertising and partnerships, which is Yahoo’s primary method of income on the site.
Regardless of the final facts and figures, one thing seems to be clear: There are plenty of Yahoo services to worry about, but Flickr is by no means one of them.
Thomas Hawk is CEO of competing photo sharing site zooomr. He has a vested interest in creating panic among the Flickr user base in attempts to bolster his own company. He’s also very good at getting himself quoted in news articles, by presenting himself as an expert. His calculations were done on the Yahoo international site, Flickr, using the names John and Jane as a criteria in search results there. Not only was that research flawed, but highly ethnocentric, to point of racism. But then Mr. Hawk has a long history of overlooking facts and making up his own in an attempt to gain attention for himself and his company. The one he set up after yet another famous battle he started with Flickr. Point is, anything Thomas Hawk has to say about Flickr should be taken with a big salt lick. The man has a long an torrid history of embattlement with them, and has started more than a few unfounded rumors in his attempts to steal users away from that site.
More FUD from the anonymous troll. I haven’t worked on Zooomr in over two years. I haven’t posted any photos to the site myself in probably at least a year. The site was a two man operation that I’d hardly call a competitor to Flickr.
By the way, Delicious was not “dropped” as you put it. At least not yet, and it doesn’t look like it was ever really as doomed as portrayed by that press leak run amok.
Also, Yahoo does have a problem monetizing Flickr with advertising because it’s really a porn site, despite not being presented as one. The charade Yahoo plays that allows Flickr to bypass filters of workplaces, schools and libraries, is a PR masterpiece of duality. Flickr is presented in way that gives the illusion of a seemingly family friendly site where nobody’s the wiser and the hardcore porn there is all handled with a wink and a nod. That’s fine for all those involved that get to enjoy their cake and eat it too. But how does that work for a stable advertising platform? Not so well it would seem. Hard to get major corporations to spend millions of dollars in sponsoring porn collecting pedophiles and perverts that are allowed within arms length of unsuspecting children. Yahoo might of been able to pull the wool over the eyes of most people when it comes to their hardcore hangout for socializing sexual predators and grandmas alike. But those people that are in charge of major advertising campaigns that Yahoo needs for revenue, they are just a little more picky about where those high priced logos are placed.
Of course, according to Thomas Hawk, those heads of corporate advertising departments are too stupid to know the difference and are willing to sponsor the nastiest of content. Anybody that questions the profitability of Flickr’s flawed business model based on monetizing covertly published porn pics by the millions daily is equally dumb, by Mr. Hawk’s standards. According to his highly valued, expert “power user” opinion.
Hawk will do and say anything to make Yahoo look bad with Flickr. He’s had a bone to pick with Yahoo for years!! He leaves annoying comments on just about every single article that mentions Flickr. DO NOT trust this guy in what he says. The fact that he hides his face behind his camera in his profile pic goes to show the creepiness this guy is trying to hide.