New Yahoo Tech Site to Invade CNet Turf
Yahoo Inc. plans to unveil its first new media property in five years today: a personal-technology website to help consumers buy and set up TVs, digital cameras and other electronic gear.
Marketers and analysts said Yahoo Tech would pose a formidable challenge to the leading tech information site, CNet Networks Inc., and present an attractive option for advertisers.
The computing and telecommunications industries spent $2.4 billion, or about one-fifth, of the $12.5 billion generated by online ads in 2005, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.
“The advertising opportunity is substantial,” said Yahoo Tech General Manager Patrick Houston, who was hired from CNet a year ago to launch the service.
Yahoo Tech is the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s first media property to be launched since its music service in 2001 and is the first to be completely designed by Yahoo Media Group, the Santa Monica-based team overseen by former ABC Entertainment Television Group Chairman Lloyd Braun.
Although the former TV executive got off to a rocky start at Yahoo, analysts said, Yahoo Tech highlights his group’s strategy of blending original programming with content created by users and licensed from media partners.
“This is their vision of how things are going to be in the future,” said Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li, adding that she expected Yahoo to revamp several other properties, such as Finance and Shopping, in similar fashion.
Yahoo Tech, at tech.yahoo.com, features product reviews from Consumer Reports and Yahoo users, how-to advice from Wiley Publishing Inc.’s “For Dummies” book series, original columnists and a TV-like tech makeover show. It also incorporates Yahoo’s instant messenger, search and shopping services.
“There’s slickly produced professional stuff in bite-sized pieces, mixed with consumer reviews and communication and Internet-utility tools -- the type of stuff that works online,” said Jupiter Research analyst David Card. “It’s the first thing to emerge from [Braun’s] group from the ground up, and it’s showing the roots of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley.”
San Francisco-based CNet is the most visited online destination for techies, attracting 28.9 million U.S. visitors in March, but its traffic was 16% lower than in March 2005, according to ComScore Networks.
Yahoo executives say their tech coverage will target a broader audience, especially women and non-technophiles. Three of their four advice columnists are women, with the monikers Mom, Boomer and Techie Diva.
“Personal technology has really become ubiquitous,” said Scott Moore, Yahoo’s vice president for content operations. “Everyone and their grandmother uses personal technology in one way or another, but there are very few sources of information for helping you figure out how to use it.”
Yahoo Tech tries to do that with a little show-business flash. On May 15, the site will launch a weekly broadband program called “Hook Me Up.” Produced by the team behind “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” the three- to five-minute show will feature makeovers of Yahoo users’ gadgets or home electronics, then do-it-yourself tips.
Yahoo executives said the site wouldn’t include tech-related news.
Initial sponsors of Yahoo Tech include Hewlett-Packard Co., Verizon Wireless and Panasonic.
“I think that in a zero-sum game, CNet stands to lose the most with this,” said John Cate, vice president of national media for Carat Fusion, an advertising agency whose clients include Radio Shack and Philips Electronics. “We are anxious for another player in this space. I think the category needed freshening up.”
CNet executives said they didn’t expect Yahoo Tech to siphon their Web traffic because they focus on a different audience: those who see technology as a lifestyle. The site “prides itself on being the definitive source on all things tech for consumers, as well as for the many media outlets and portals that syndicate CNet’s award-winning content,” Executive Vice President Joe Gillespie said.
Although she liked Yahoo’s approach, Forrester analyst Li said the site might create a conflict of interest for the Internet giant. Yahoo Tech focuses on tech hardware, but to be comprehensive it should also review online services such as Web-based e-mail, search and voice over Internet protocol -- areas in which Yahoo competes with the likes of Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL.
“If they really want to be a technology-focused site,” Li said, “they can’t just be focused on gadgets.”
