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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (92934)	4/11/2001 2:14:32 PM
From: Brasco One	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 436258

do we buy yahoo on this news? <g> this is the bottom.. <G Yahoo! Opens Online Adult Video Store By Tim McDonald, www.NewsFactor.com Lusting for profits in a frigid economy, Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) confirmed Tuesday that it has ventured into the disreputable but extremely lucrative world of online pornography. • The Real Price of Sex.com • Sex.com Plaintiff To Get US$65 Million • Conference Focuses on Child Safety Online The giant Internet portal has opened an online store selling hard-core pornographic video tapes and DVDs, from which it earns a share of the sales. The company has sold a small number of pornographic videos in the past, and has served as a directory for those who wanted to view pornography. Company officials did not return telephone calls from NewsFactor Network, but issued a statement Tuesday afternoon confirming that "under stringent control, adult products have been available through Yahoo! Shopping for more than two years." Yahoo's porn store represents a breakthrough, if one of a somewhat dubious nature. The company is the first top-level Internet portal to venture into online pornography. With about 185 million visitors a month, Yahoo! has tried to foster a wholesome image in the past. Perils of Porn "Does this create a risk for them? Potentially, it does," Gartner research director Whit Andrews told NewsFactor Network. "It raises their profile in a controversial industry. Any time you increase your exposure to protest or outrage you take a substantial risk." Andrews added, "You're going to get into a situation here where the major advertisers are going to point their fingers and say, 'Hey, I'm putting wholesome ads on your network. How dare you sell pornography?' To some degree, it's a test of the genuine target marketing that is the reality of the Internet." The Los Angeles Times reported that neither America Online (AOL) nor Blockbuster permit adult material to be sold on their sites, while Microsoft and Amazon.com sell such items on a limited basis. "[Yahoo!] is a company that has posted losses because ad sales are down," Van Baker, vice president of Dataquest's e-business group, told the Times. "This won't hurt them with advertisers in the young male demographic. But to everybody else -- and certainly anyone who's advertising to the Christian or kids market -- this is going to be shocking." Easy Access Yahoo's new "adult and erotic" store is easily accessed, either through its main shopping channel or by typing "sex" into its search engine. Would-be visitors are asked to verify their age by submitting credit card information, which is cross-checked. In addition to the video store, Yahoo! is building customized stores for adult-entertainment production companies. No Dirty Little Secret Yahoo! may not be trumpeting its entry into the online porn business, but it is no secret that the industry is one of the most lucrative on the Internet. Online porn represents an estimated US$1 billion to $5 billion market, and is the largest producer in the paid online content market. A recent U.S. court ruling over the domain name Sex.com provides a clear example of the online sex industry's worth. In that case, the judge ordered a cybersquatter who claimed to have earned a $40 million profit over five years using the Sex.com name to pay $65 million in damages to the domain name's rightful owner. The technology used on adult sites, such as streaming video and advanced credit card processing technology, is often the envy of mainstream Net sites. Financial Problems Yahoo! is scheduled to brief analysts on its earnings later Wednesday, but nothing new is expected. The company has already issued two sharply lower earnings estimates this year, announced that first-quarter sales would decline 25 percent from the same period last year, and has said it might not make any profit at all in 2001. In March, Yahoo! announced that it was looking for a new CEO and sales chief. The company is also trying to fill key positions in Europe and Asia after top executives in those important markets left the company. In another effort to show profits in a slumping online advertising environment, Yahoo! last week announced plans to sell music subscriptions in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment and Vivendi's Universal Music Group.