Yahoo!'s original owners were students who created informational websites as a hobby. They realized how valuable this service was to people and turned their hobby into a business. Yahoo! has become a very successful business over a short period of time. It has expanded the information it provides on its website to include stock quotations, sports, weather, Yellow Pages, and business news.
Its popularity has generated revenue from firms that pay Yahoo! to advertise their products on its website. Yahoo! is continually changing its website to provide additional information. It attempts to offer whatever information customers want so that it will become even more popular and attract even more advertising revenue. It relies on customer feedback to determine what customers like about its website. It receives a substantial amount of immediate feedback every day in the form of e-mail from its customers.
Questions
1. What do you think Yahoo!'s business plan is regarding its production of a service and how it generates revenue?
2. Given that Yahoo!'s business plan seems to be working, why is it still necessary for Yahoo! to focus on continual improvement based on feedback from its customers?
3. Why might Yahoo!'s business plan change over time?