Remember Yahoo Small Business? Before Facebook, before GoDaddy, before Google My Business, it was the top webhosting, e-commerce and marketing platform for small businesses. For years it was also neglected as a kind of cash cow without much new investment; it was also going to be spun out as Aabaco Small Business.
New YSB investments being made. However, Verizon agreed to acquire most of Yahoo in 2016 and the deal closed last year. Yahoo Small Business was not actually sold off and is now part of Verizon. This gives new life to the division and potential new distribution and competitive advantages, not yet implemented or realized.
Currently Yahoo Small Business offers:
Webhosting
Domains
E-commerce
Listings management (via Yext)
Email
Verizon-Yahoo’s Dan Breeden said in an interview that the parent company is investing again in Yahoo Small Business. Among other things, he said they’re doubling the size of the team.
I also asked him about the health of the brand. He said that while in some geographic pockets Yahoo has faded as a technology brand it does very well “off the coasts,” especially with small business owners.
Expanding its SMB services. I also asked Breeden about the product roadmap and whether the company is going to expand its marketing tools and other services (i.e., CRM, SEM and social). He wasn’t able to answer me but indicated that the company will definitely be expanding its offering and is evaluating many things right now.
He added, by way of milestones, that Yahoo Small Business has processed 300 million orders through the platform at a value of more than $80 billion in gross sales. This is during the 20+ years of its existence.
Verizon can leverage YSB and vice versa. Perhaps most intriguing is the potential Verizon-Yahoo sales channel combination. Verizon has a large salesforce. It also has over 2,300 retail locations. These could be used to promote and/or sell Yahoo Small Business solutions.
Equally, Yahoo Small Business might be used to promote Verizon as an ISP and wireless carrier. Verizon has more than 150 million wireless customers, many of whom are small business owners.
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