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Technology Stocks : Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Sievers who wrote (7277)	2/10/1998 8:14:00 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27307

Although the advertising models are similar, Yahoo is different from a broadcaster and more like a TV-Guide without the subscription income and paper, printing, and distribution costs. Anyone can and does publish TV listings. There's still only one TV Guide and its the most widely circulated magazine in the US. Readers Digest (another content aggregator) is the leading magazine globally. I know advertisers who are using the Web and what they are going through to find what works. Web advertising is still virgin territory, but the consensus among those I know is that 1) it works now and will work better over time, 2) the present learning-curve cost is peanuts, 3) it will be more productive than other media because of a) click-thru interactivity, b) demographics (particularly affluent young urban males who are incredibly valuable targets and nearly-impossible to reach in significant numbers consistently with TV), and c) "content-carry" ...narrowly focusing messages by audience interest. The Internet will never replace broadcast as a mass, image-building medium. What Yahoo has that few appreciate is an electronic trail of everything that happens on Yahoo. On the content side, Yahoo fashions their general offerings based on the most-frequently searched-for content on the Yahoo engine. On the commercial side, Yahoo knows the response rates for each ad they carry, and so do the advertisers, by time of day, ad-number, and placement. These elements have the makings of advertising science never-before possible with broadcast, and available before only with telemarketing and to some limited degree from coupon-tracking. If it can be done with public computer networks and involves commerce, you can bet it's being considered at or pitched to Yahoo. Once advertisers know what works they go for it...they pay and pay and pay to prime the pumps of commerce. As the Internet broadens out to reach bigger audiences and better bandwidth allows streaming video and other opportunities, the interactivity of the Internet will still set it apart and afford it even higher CPM premiums to other media. Meanwhile, advertisers are getting their tools together. They're building their websites, they're learning the ropes. What we're seeing now in Web advertising (especially by the big money) is prologue.