Yahoo Unveils Small Business Web Tools

Yahoo is further expanding its premium services by offering Web hosting packages for small businesses, replete with corporate e-mail accounts, site-building tools, storage, and design templates.

The Web hosting services are being offered at "starter," "standard," and "professional" levels, but all three packages are aimed at small enterprises that require easy-to-use tools and services.

The Sunnyvale, California, Internet company officially launched the Web hosting packages Monday as just the latest in a range of premium services aimed at diversifying its business. The company has also rolled out premium e-mail and corporate instant messaging services, which have helped to move the company's financials into the black.

The Web hosting offerings are meant to build on Yahoo's five years of experience offering small-business services, the company said.

Pick a Package

The Business Starter package includes 10 personal e-mail addresses, 50MB of storage, and 20GB of data transfer for $12 a month, with a $15 setup fee. The Standard plan offers 25 e-mail accounts, 100MB of storage, 25GB of data transfer, and 24-hour, seven-day-a-week customer support for $20 a month plus a $25 setup fee. The Professional plan offers 35 e-mail accounts, 350MB of storage, 35GB of data transfer, and customer service for $40 a month and a $25 setup fee.

The packages offer different levels of functionality, such as site building and authoring tools, design templates, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) scripting, and MySQL database services, Yahoo said.

The Business Starter plan, for instance, lets businesses use SiteWizards to build a static, multipage Web site with no coding required. Customers who choose the Standard or Professional plans can either use templates or write their own code.

Small-Business Plan

Yahoo has made the small-business market one of its key focuses, offering domains, online store fronts, and targeted advertising services. With its integrated Web hosting tools and services, the company is hoping to grab more of the growing small-enterprise market and become a one-stop online service provider.

"It's a leverage play," said Melanie Posey, an analyst with IDC.

Posey said that Yahoo's new Web hosting services will be especially compelling for companies that already use the Internet giant's existing business services.

"What they are counting on initially is mining their existing customer base," she said.

The analyst added that a wealth of small businesses have yet to make the transition online. Yahoo's focus on ease of use will be particularly important for attracting businesses that have been intimidated by the technical aspects of working on the Web, she added.