Yahoo! touches up Personals
Published: 13 Jan 2003 08:55 GMT
In an overture to new paying subscribers, Yahoo! is adding video and voice capabilities to its online dating service.
On Monday, the Sunnyvale, California-based Web network plans to bolster Yahoo! Personals, one of its chief moneymakers, with technology that lets people embed a greeting into their personals advertisements, either with video or a voice message, according to the company.
The feature is free, but if prospective mates like what they see or hear enough to want to meet someone, then they must sign up as a member of Yahoo! Personals, which costs $24.95, or about £16, for one month or $49.95 for three months.
Yahoo! is buttering up its online dating service at a time when it's one of its more financially attractive businesses. In the third quarter, fees from online dating accounted for about 70 percent of revenue -- one-fourth of its "listings" business. Yahoo! has pledged to emphasize building paid memberships of all orders in order to offset declines in online advertising.
Still, the company faces major rivals in the online dating market, which is one of the hot spots for social activity -- and profits -- on the Web. Match.com, which rules the market, and others have been adding more advanced matchmaking features in their online communities to stand out from the pack.
Last year, Match.com, DateCam.com and PalTalk unveiled instant chat services for those looking to find dates online. Yahoo! also improved IM for personals members, including adding a Web cam feature for broadband users.
With its latest feature, which goes live Sunday night, the service lets people add a simple greeting to a personals ad via their phone. To add video, people must have a Web cam connected to their PC. And to stream and play back messages, visitors must have a Windows Media Player.
Yahoo! said that the features will be key in driving new subscribers. The company cited statistics that show people search on ads with photos eight more times than other ads.
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