NEWS TECH - Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

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Wednesday April 11 9:58 AM ET

Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) - Internet company Yahoo! Inc. has begun selling pornographic videos online, company officials have confirmed.

Yahoo!, whose Web pages are viewed by about 185 million people a month, has opened an online store selling thousands of hard-core video tapes and DVDs. The company earns a share of the sales.

Yahoo! officials declined to talk to the Los Angeles Times about the pornography sales. In a written statement Tuesday, they said that ``under stringent control, adult products have been available through Yahoo! Shopping for more than two years.''

The company has expanded efforts to block underage shoppers, requiring buyers to register an e-mail address and enter a credit card number. The card is checked to verify shoppers' ages.

Analysts told the Times that the sale of porn may alienate companies that advertise with the company. Yahoo! is expected to report its second consecutive quarterly loss today.

Other major Internet companies, including America Online and the Microsoft Network, have stayed away from pornography sales.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Answers

Response to (News Tech) Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

I figured Ezboard would be the first to hop on this bandwagon.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Response to (News Tech) Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

Judging from some of the spam I'm receivng lately. . .

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Response to (News Tech) Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

bbc Wednesday, 11 April, 2001, 22:37 GMT 23:37 UK

Yahoo cuts jobs as profits are wiped-out

Is charging users the only way forward? Struggling US internet giant Yahoo recorded net losses of $11.5m in the first quarter of 2001, after a sharp downturn in advertising revenue.

The company announced it is cutting 12% of its work force, about 400 people, to save costs.

Yahoo, which last month warned that its first quarter results would fall short of expectations, reported a net loss of $11.5m compared with a profit of $67.6m in the first quarter of last year.

After the announcement, Yahoo's shares rose to $16.25 in after-hours trading, from $15.86 at the close of the regular trading session on Nasdaq.

"While we streamline our business over the second quarter to become more efficient and align our costs with the current market environment, we remain steadily focused on developing and delivering the essential services that will result in Yahoo becoming the Internet's leading global consumer and business services company," Yahoo Chief Executive Tim Koogle said in the statement.

Excluding special items, Yahoo said it earned $7.6m compared with a profit of $60.5m in the same quarter lasdt year, slightly beating analysts' expectations.

Pessimistic

Yahoo said its revenues fell to $180.2m from $230.8m a year earlier, also slightly ahead of analysts' expectations.

But it revised its previous predictions for the second quarter, saying it expected to make less than expected.

Yahoo relies heavily on advertising revenue from dot.com companies which has dried up in recent months.

The number of customers on its books fell by 15% over the quarter to 3,145, according to sources.

But customers, which tended to be increasingly from more established businesses, were signing longer contracts, the company said.

Twice in the past few months Yahoo has warned that there would be no profits for the first quarter.

But its slightly better than expected figures are unlikely to bring much relief to its share price, which rose slightly after in after-hours trading, following Wednesday's announcement.

Investors' nerves are likely to be rattled by ongoing uncertainty about Yahoo's future direction.

The company, which was once the darling of the high-tech sector, is still seeking a chief executive following the resignation of Tim Koogle earlier this year.

Little further to fall

However, with so much bad news already out in the open, investors will be hopeful that the value of their shares has little further to fall when markets open on Thursday.

Analysts say that with so many other corporations also reporting disappointing earnings, pessimistic expectations have already been "priced in" to almost all technology stocks.

Music venture

In recent weeks, Yahoo has announced new initiatives that are designed to offset the decline in advertising revenues and move the company toward a more profitable business model that will include selling music.

Last Thursday, Yahoo said it had joined an alliance between Vivendi Universal and Sony, which is intended to rival Napster's online music sharing service.

The music of Vivendi Universal and Sony Music will be available - for a fee - through the Yahoo website.

News of the deal sent Yahoo's share price 20% higher.

Pornography

Yahoo has also surprised some observers by reportedly entering the pornography market, one of the few internet sectors to consistently make money.

The Los Angeles Times said the company has opened an online store stocked with adult videos and hard-core DVDs.

"In the online sex market, size does matter," Dan Lavin of high-tech market analysis firm International Venture Research told the paper.

"There's no one bigger than Yahoo."

Other major, mainstream online firms have been reluctant to associate themselves with pornography.

Transition

However, uncertainty surrounding prospects for the US economy and the technology sector leaves many investors nervous about Yahoo's prospects.

Some analysts say internet advertising revenue will drop about 20% this year - a blow Yahoo can ill afford, having already slipped behind AOL and Microsoft's MSN in the internet portal pecking order.

They say the future for Yahoo is to start charging users for services, as AOL and MSN already do.

"The days of the totally free portal will have to end," says Abhiskek Gami an analyst at William Blair & Co research.

He says this might prove a hard transition for Yahoo to make.

"The whole free internet thing is really an integral part of the Yahoo culture.

"But all the recent bad news, hopefully, will point them towards finally charging users."

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001


Response to (News Tech) Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

Is NOTHING sacred!!!!??????

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Response to (News Tech) Yahoo Gets Into the Porn Business

Gives new meaning to choosing your portal...

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001


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