Yahoo's Bartz Makes the Call to Cut Ads in Some Regions

Yahoo’s freshman CEO recently made the call to reduce the number of ads the company displays to its Mail users in low-bandwidth regions. Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Tech Conference, Carol Bartz said the decision was made to improve performance in places where connection speeds were hindering the user experience with the company’s core product.

“We have to keep Mail core especially as we’re building our international properties,” she said.

Doubtless the move also had something to do with what the company can make from those ads. Especially in developing countries, where audience growth is more imperative than revenue, the CPMs it can command for such inventory don’t justify the negative buzz or lost loyalty that result from slow page load times.

In other comments, Bartz said online advertising has become “same old, same old” in recent years, but that “class 1” advertiser spend is coming back, and that Yahoo remains well positioned to ride that wave. She says Yahoo has benefited as media buyers have consolidated their spend with one or two ad sellers.