Faced with a softening online advertising marketing, Yahoo is
diversifying its marketing to target corporate customers.
The drive to pump up revenue has led the Internet giant to launch Plan
C, a campaign to pull in business from large corporations. Yahoo has
offered to build corporate portals, conduct realtime conferences over
the Internet and other business-related services for companies.
Despite strong growth, Yahoo has not been immune to the dotcom
downturn.
It earlier warned that 2001 earnings would be lower than predicted. Like
many dotcoms, Yahoo's problems stem from its business model, which is
largely dependent on online advertising.
With the dotcom casualty list mounting and marketing budgets being
slashed, Yahoo has seen its advertising revenue dry up.
The company's plan B - to attract advertising from traditional companies
- didn't quite take shape. Even the portal's online mall, which lists a
growing number of merchants, has yet to pay off, prompting the latest
drive to target corporations, with the launch of a business-to-business
marketplace.
Yahoo senior manager of international marketing, Gen Shibayama, told
CReATION on a recent visit to Hong Kong that the company was optimistic
the new business services would help it gain a share of the growing B2B
market. The Gartner Group has predicted that the B2B market would be
worth USdollars 7.3 trillion annually by 2004.
"The (online advertising) situation in Asia is much better than the US.
We have already launched these campaigns for corporate users in Taiwan.
We also worked with Ming Pao in Hong Kong to help them with a live
webcast," said Mr Shibayama.
"We don't foresee any consumer campaigns in the near future because our
target is more for corporate at this time."
Yahoo is also beginning to charge a listing fee for its auction site and
is looking at other ways to earn revenue from its 55 million users.
Although Yahoo is arguably the best known portal brand on the Web, its
strategy to target companies presents perils of its own.
As Mr Shibayama acknowledged, the portal to business market has become
increasingly crowded, while spending on IT is expected to fall this
year.
Targeting corporate users will also require Yahoo to extend its consumer
brand to entice corporate decision makers.
He said Yahoo would make further advances into Asia, following its
acquisition of Kimo.com.
NetValue data shows that Yahoo already operates the top Web properties
in three Asian markets. Its sites drew the most unique home Internet
users in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan during December, while
Kimo.com, which Yahoo acquired in November, placed first in Taiwan, with
Yahoo in third.
The acquisition of Kimo.com, according to Merrill Lynch US Internet
analyst Henry Blodget, was made to "bolster Yahoo's position in Taiwan",
and ultimately mainland China.
