I’m pretty sure you will have heard many times before, but it’s true, in the internet and media world: content is king.

It sounds simple, but what this statement doesn’t do is capture the innovation, the passion and the strives in technology which help Yahoo! deliver the most relevant content to 92 million users in Europe alone by a combining unique technology with human expertise.

First off, you may ask who am I? I am Noelia Fernández Arroyo, VP, Head of Audience in EMEA. I’ve been at Yahoo! for over 13 years. Jerry and the team initially hired me to launch Yahoo! Spain back in 1998. I joined the company because it had the ambition to improve the World through great technology and services, with editorial at the core and you know what, the principle still remains the same today. Yes, I’ve seen changes and have experienced challenges but I firmly believe in Yahoo!’s commitment and passion to create deeply personal experiences on the Web. Yahoo!’s passion, is my passion.

To that point, we have been investing in the right areas and focusing where we can win, and where we are winning! Did you know in Europe’s five largest markets Yahoo! reaches 92 million people, up over 7 million or 9% year on year against a market growth of 2% and we’re ranked number one or two in five categories across Europe: News, Finance, Sport, Flickr and Answers. We are in a unique position where we can leverage our innovation and technology with our European users to deliver compelling content to a mass audience, every day.

We have the best technology combined with talented, global editorial teams who help us turn around events and news that people care about on a global basis. Let me give you an example, the London riots were big news here in Europe, as it was globally. We were seeing a lot of activity on the streets, which was both prolific and sensitive in nature. The flexibility of the global publishing platform allowed our News and Front Page teams to respond quickly to create around the clock coverage and exclusive content in real time and through people’s own eyes. Interestingly, in August, the UK video streams rocketed by 191% on Yahoo! News showing the demand and consumption of rich content in parallel to news stories.

So, how do we do this?

Firstly, we keep investing strongly in our new global content publishing platform. It’s called the Yahoo! Publishing Platform. It’s global but puts power in the hands of local teams here in Europe working for local audiences; it allows us to act much faster to world events and activities and provides a platform for easy integration of rich video content.

So what does the Yahoo! Publishing Platform actually mean for the life of our Editors in Europe?

• In Italy, where Yahoo! Movies is on the Yahoo! Publishing Platform, it took just one hour to create recent coverage of the Cannes Movies Festival which delivered double the performance from the previous year
• We can create and publish original content easily and quickly: in Yahoo! omg! alone we publish over 35 original stories per day unique to Yahoo!
• The Yahoo! Publishing Platform recently launched for Yahoo! Video, Lifestyle and News. A combination of coverage of key events using the new platform led to a 20% increase in Yahoo! News page views in Europe[iv]
• omg from Yahoo! has also launched in Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK
• Yahoo! Movies in Italy launched onto the platform leading to a 60% increase in page views
• So far we have launched 95 products already onto the Yahoo! Publishing Platform

Through our science and technology, we can make informed decisions, based on scientific data rather than predictions and estimations. It allows the editors I work with to get ahead of the game and be first with the right content. This is where C.O.R.E. (Content Optimization and Relevance Engine) comes in, a technology that was developed by Yahoo! Labs a couple of years ago. Sophisticated algorithms and machine learning technology, combined with human expertise allows us to carry out deep personalization to our 674 million users globally and 92 million in Europe.

Did you know?

• Our Editorial team appropriately delivers on average, 35 stories per week day, per market, targeted to our users individual interests based on our own technology
• Yahoo! personalizes 2.2 billion content module experiences on our pages per day
• We show 13 million personalized homepage versions per day and the click through rate in the Yahoo! Magazine on the frontpage has increased by more than 700% in Europe as a result of this technology

So you can see why I am committed, focused and excited to be a Yahoo! and this is just a taste of what we are currently doing here in Europe. I know we have plenty of innovation and new products up our sleeves over the coming months, so watch this space!

Gracias and keep up the purple!

Noelia Fernandez Arroyo
Proud to be a Yahoo!

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series entitled, “In My Own Words,” that gives employees the opportunity to share their own stories about Yahoo!. Feel like yodeling your own? Post your Yahoo! story on your social networks using the hashtag #myYahoostory.

The awards originated in the UK and this year we decided to go European: Yahoo! Germany, Italy and Spain have all launched their own version of “Finds of the Year” – Yahoo! Entdeckungen 2007, Le Rivelazioni del Web and Web Revelación – representing the region’s rich and entertaining Web endeavours.

The UK winners include a social networking site with a twist – a site for dogs and their pooch personalities. Users raved about an eco-shopping site created by a chap named Nigel, full of innovative and wonderful environmentally friendly products. My particular favourite is the staple-free stapler. And the people’s choice winner was Move Me, a site that captures a to-do list for when you move house and adds it all into a neat calendar for a step-by-step guide to a stress-free move!

Germany’s first ‘Finds’ awards, “Yahoo! Entdeckungen,” had great examples of Web 2.0 in action, including a cool new approach to exploring the German capital and sites that capture the essence of ‘friends of the web.’ The online-community hausgemacht.tv was a double-winner: it was a favourite for both the jury in the category “Zeitgeist” and the public vote. hausgemacht.tv delivers convenient DIY videos, ranging from tips on housekeeping to cars and health.

In Italy, if you want math as your friend and not your enemy or are keen to discover and share your passion of shoes with other like-minded souls then Yahoo! Italia’s “Le Rivelazioni del Web” is the place to go.

And with “Web Revelación,” Yahoo! Espana chimes in with revelations ranging from a website reminding you of those little things that your friends and family borrow and never give back, to a karaoke platform to an operating system developed by two young Spanish engineers.

The awards across UK, Germany, Italy and Spain really capture the ingenuity, creativity and fun that are out there on the Web for all to discover. So sidle up to our Search bar and go find something cool today!

Jeff Revoy
VP, EU Search, Local and Social Media
London, UK