Yahoo’s Monthly Active User Base Has Touched 800 Million, But More Work Needs To Be Done: Mayer

According to Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s (NASDAQ:YHOO) chief executive officer, the company’s monthly active user base has surpassed the 800-million mark globally, recording a 20 percent increase since she joined the popular yet ailing Internet pioneer in July 2012.

Mayer said, during an interview at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, that the global surge in the company’s user base includes 350 million active users on mobile devices. According to her, the monthly user figure does not incorporate Tumblr, a high-traffic blogging startup that Yahoo acquired in May for $1 billion.

Mayer said that Yahoo’s search and mail services have been significantly successful in recent months. According to her, the company’s best products such as Mail, News and Finance are generally used by people on their mobile devices.

However, Mayer also said that despite the increasing active user base, it will take “three or more years” for Yahoo to get to a desirable position. And, during this period, the company will focus on four areas -- people, products, traffic and revenue -- to achieve its goal, TechCrunch reported.

“The products have to be good,” Bloomberg quoted Mayer as saying. “Otherwise, users don’t come and actually use them.”

Yahoo also adopted a new corporate logo last week, as part of Mayer’s attempt to bring in some freshness to the struggling company.

“We knew we wanted a logo that reflected Yahoo - whimsical, yet sophisticated. Modern and fresh, with a nod to our history. Having a human touch, personal. Proud,” Mayer said in a Tumblr post.

According to a recent research report from eMarketer, Yahoo will continue to lose its share of net U.S. search ad revenues, which is expected to drop to 6.2 percent this year from 6.5 percent in 2012, as both Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) gain.

Yahoo’s shares fell nearly 1 percent to $29.19 at Wednesday’s close on the Nasdaq stock exchange.