Yahoo! is coming after the $1.3 billion small business shared hosting opportunity with new verve, hawking a slate of targeted new services and its formidable brand name and distribution clout.
"There's a billion [dollar] plus market for shared hosting to small business, which we define as companies with less than 100 employees," says Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Small Business. "There are more than a million such businesses in the U.S. today -- many with no online presence. Our goal is to be the leader of this market."
Yahoo! plans to market the service primarily through its own network, which Riley says has the largest reach among small businesses. The company also is pursuing a channel strategy, which will be detailed in the first quarter, to market and distribute its services through Web design shops and possibly large strategic opportunities through telcos or other network operators, says Riley.
Small business hosting is a well established, but very fragmented market, says Riley. Yahoo! has catered to small business for more than five years and is a leader in Web hosting and e-commerce today. Other leaders in small business hosting include Interland, NTT/Verio and XO Communications, says Riley. He adds that no one company has an overwhelming share of the market.
"One of our key differentiators is that while those companies host, we allow small businesses to market themselves on the Yahoo! Web site," says Riley. Yahoo! small business customers can receive an expedited listing in the Yahoo! directory, preferred placement in Yahoo! Yellow Pages and a Web site listing with Yahoo! if the company has an online store hosted by Yahoo!, he says. "Over time we'll be increasing opportunities to buy key words and purchase stuff like banners," says Riley.
In addition, customers can use Yahoo!'s Web site building tools, authoring tools and design templates to help them build basic Web sites. Advanced PHP and MySQL scripting services are available for businesses that have or want to create a more sophisticated Web site.
The three plans currently available under Yahoo! Web Hosting are Business Starter, which for $11.95 per month and a $15 setup fee provides 10 personal address e-mail accounts, 50 megabytes of storage and 20 gigabytes of data transfer; Business Standard, which costs $19.95 per month and a $25 setup fee and includes 25 business edition e-mail accounts, 100 megabytes of storage, 25 gigabytes of data transfer and priority 24/7 toll-free customer support; and Business Professional, which for $39.95 per month and a $25 setup fee offers 35 business edition e-mail accounts, 350 megabytes of storage, 35 gigabytes of data transfer and priority 24/7 toll-free customer support.
