Breaking Web Marketing News
Yahoo! Paid Inclusion Drops
July 6, 2004

Yahoo! took a hit with their Paid Inclusion program losing revenue from previous months. Yahoo! has taken a lot of heat over their Paid Inclusion when other search engines have either avoided it (Google) or abandoned it (Ask Jeeves, MSN). But Yahoo! did post a very healthy quarter, doubling their revenue from last year. Here's a breakdown of Yahoo's various revenue generators:

• Marketing services: The business line, which encompasses the company's advertising revenue, posted $691 million, up from $635 million the previous quarter and $219 million a year ago. The results include revenue from Yahoo's acquisition of Overture, whose highly lucrative paid search business accounted for the bulk of this quarter's gains. The company did not break out how much of this revenue came from paid search and how much came from display advertising.

• Fees: Revenue from Yahoo's paid services businesses jumped to $104 million from $88 million last quarter and $70 million last year. Bulk paid subscriptions reached 6.4 million from 5.8 million last quarter and 3.5 million a year ago. Executives attributed the revenue difference to a price increase for SBC Communications' dial-up customers who also use Yahoo's services.

• Listings: This business, which largely consists of Yahoo's HotJobs subsidiary, reported $38 million in revenue. That's up from $34 million last quarter and $32 million a year ago.

Yahoo also offered a glimpse of its new home page design, which emphasizes its search engine and simplifies its layout. The company is testing a number of designs and soliciting feedback for its eventual launch later this year.