Yahoo is moving to expand its small business clientele with a new campaign marketing low-cost domain names and expanded Web hosting.
The move throws Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) into heightened competition with such providers as Microsoft's bCentral (MSFT: news, chart, profile), Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions, 1&1 Internet, the U.S. subsidiary of Europe's United Internet (DE:508903: news, chart, profile); Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Go Daddy and New York-based Register.com (RCOM: news, chart, profile), according to media reports Tuesday.
The move is based at least partially on industry observers noting that a record 4 million new domain names were registered in the first quarter of 2004, suggesting that small businesses previously without a Web presence on coming on line, Netcraft News reported.
But about 10 million of 23 million small businesses in the United States still don't have a Web sit, the Associated Press said it was told by Rich Riley, Yahoo's general manager and vice president of small business services, who added: " We want to create a one-stop shop for them."
Yahoo already offers Web hosting, site designs and e-mail service packages for small businesses. Now it is selling domain names for a $9.95 annual fee, less than many of its competitors. The Internet giant also lets users move a domain name to Yahoo hosting for the same $9.95 fee and is offering expanded storage of 2 gigabytes each for disk files and e-mail, starting at $11.95 a month.
Riley said Yahoo's pricing is designed to attract new users, not to draw businesses away from other hosting sites, Netcraft reported.
Yahoo closed Monday ahead of the reports at $28.25, up 76 cents or 2.76 percent and rose another penny after hours.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment