Forum Moderators: open
From the article,
"The struggling online media company is testing a plan to charge customers $1.99 a minute for phone support, a company representative said Tuesday. Yahoo has been testing the fees for about two weeks with customers who use its free e-mail service, the representative said. "We are continually evaluating new ways to add value to our users' experience," the representative said. "We are beta testing this service and will determine if it is something that makes sense for our business and our users."
Heheheee.... Shouldn't that be: "We are continually evaluating new ways to gain value from our users' experience"
I can't imagine this is going to be a *good* move for them. They're introducing the support fee to their email users first? The ones who they just signed up for their in-house email ::ahem:: "marketing messages" without asking? The same free email clients who've just been given a cut-off date for POP access to their email accounts, if they don't pay up the annual fee?
No, I can't imagine this will be a huge success for them. I feel kinda bad for Yahoo!... They were so undisputably on top for so long, it seems to me like they lost touch with the whole "lean & mean" operating potential of a web business. Not a loss of perspective you'd really expect from a company famed for springing from the imaginations of two 20-something web geeks.
I always thought that was the beauty of the internet as a business medium: you didn't need a top-heavy CEO-corporate management structure, highly-paid executives and a massive corporate headquarters building dragging on your income in order to LOOK big & important. All you need is a bunch of servers, good designers & engineers, and enough people to keep it all running 24-7.
Assuming those people (including the owners/execs) are making a comfortable living wage with profit sharing incentives, instead of having a bloated upper executive corporate salary structure, you'd be doing pretty well... especially if your headquarters was a sweat-equity remodel job on an obscure downtown warehouse somewhere, without the Aeron chairs...
Yahoo's income and expenses look something like this:
Income:
Directory listings
Advertising including banner ads and sponsored listings
Yahoo Stores and Auction
Expenses:
Google database input
Overture database input
Geocities
E-mail
Am I missing anything? I guess my point is that you'd think a site as well known and used as Yahoo could pull it together and be profitable. What is it that is preventing that?
Now multiply that value by a given number, (for this example lets say 25). That will give you the yearly compensation of each person parking there. You can arrive at general total management cost from this.
Ok, now count the number of cars in the employee (non reserved lot), establish a average cost per auto and multiply that by 3, and again by the number of cars. So thats become your production cost.
From this data establish a ratio of admin to production cost.
If production can produce "x" amount dollars per hour at a cost of "y" dollars per hour. How much does "x" need to be to cover the cost of admin "z".
Not to mention other expensives.
Now if you can bus people in and pay them "w" that bills out at . . . .
Read the article. They're charging for phone support of their free services like e-mail. Before this, they haven't offered phone support for free services. This isn't a change-up, it's a new service. They're not going to lose any money-making customers over charging the freeloaders.
Will the freeloaders pay? Well, people who need phone support for webmail aren't deep thinkers to begin with. I've done tech support for webmail users, and I know there are lots of people who just can't handle written instructions as well as they handle an over-the-phone walkthrough . If they get themselves dependent on webmail, and it's not working, they'll pay for help.
To me it's a case of extremes. On one hand, they provide a myriad of free services, like e-mail and web hosting. And on the other hand, they feel the need to charge a super premium for the support they do offer. Why not just hit some middle ground on this one... instead of charging $1.99 an minute for support, why not charge $.99? And $299 for review? Come on!
They insist on playing the number game. If they charge $299, they alienate alot of people, but they do know that some people will pay, I'm sure reluctantly, but they will pay. Why not charge 3/4 of that price, and make up the difference in volume? They'd gain alot more in terms of a comprehensive directory and alot less alientated people. It's bad enough I'm playing the John here, why not just make it alittle softer on my wallet?
-meannate
They are located in California.....
ADD OUTSIDE LEGAL EXPENSES
I remember taking one of my first road trips up to San Francisco years ago, and seeing the giant Yahoo! sign. It was very bright, being composed of individual colored bulbs... almost like a beacon.
I remember thinking, "Why exactly do they need that big-ass sign?" "What do they sell?" This was before I had really experienced the internet, through my SLIP account at a local BBS.
I guess I'm only finding out now.
-meannate
Isn't there a 'have your email read to you over the phone' service? Does anyone know if you have to pay for that service now?
