In 2009, Yahoo launched Meme, a microblogging service most comparable to Twitter. Unlike Twitter, it is probably not part of many brands social media marketing mix. In the three years since going live, Meme has garnered little traffic while other social networks have blossomed. As such, the company announced recently that it will discontinue the service, effective as of May 25, 2012.
Recent years have been difficult for Yahoo in terms of its web services. While Meme is the latest victim, Yahoo has seen decreases in its search volume compared to Google and Bing. Despite a partnership with Bing in search and ad management, Yahoo has dropped to become the No. 3 search engine in the U.S. and Brafton recently reported it loses market share by the month.
There are no figures available regarding Meme’s current user base, however, it’s likely that the figure has fallen to such a degree that Yahoo has opted to take this action.
For marketers, Meme’s demise means little since it was never a major player that warranted attention. Perhaps, more than anything, discontinuing the website demonstrates the massive success of Facebook and Twitter, as the companies have started from scratch to become globally known and used organizations, where Yahoo was unable to leverage its established brand to drive success for Meme.
Other social networks from major global brands have failed in recent years, including Google Wave. Brafton reported in 2010 that Google Wave struggled to convince users to share content on the website, despite interest from marketers to leverage Google’s contextual advertising capability. With recent reports that Google+ users stay on the network for just 3 minutes, many are still waiting to see if Google’s latest social network will go the way of Yahoo Meme and Google Wave.
