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Yahoo Unveils Business Mail Service

Small businesses can get branded address and multiple e-mail accounts, plus storage.

Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service

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With the unveiling Monday of Yahoo Mail-Business Edition, a service aimed at small businesses and basement entrepreneurs, Yahoo is expanding its premium service options and diversifying its revenue stream.

The premium e-mail service offers small businesses a branded address, such as employee@yourbusiness.com, for a starting price of $9.95 a month, plus a $25 startup fee. Under the $9.95 plan, businesses receive five e-mail accounts with 25MB of storage and centralized e-mail account administration. The service can be expanded to 200 e-mail accounts.

Yahoo's business edition features Spamguard anti-virus protection through Symantec's CarrierScan Server technology, as well as Yahoo Address Book and Yahoo Calendar. The service also eliminates banners and taglines from e-mails.

Most standalone online storage services have shifted their focus or switched to subscription services only, partly because organizations like Yahoo include online storage with other well-known services, such as mail.

New Ventures

In addition to broadening the company's small business offerings, which already include online marketing, promotional services and e-commerce opportunities, the new mail service provides another potential revenue stream for the strapped Internet company.

The company has recently expanded other online services, such as a video service coupled with its Yahoo Messenger instant messenger offering. Company representatives have also recently described new e-commerce ventures intended to boost Yahoo's revenues. One new program is the sale of downloadable e-books from the site.

Although Yahoo's third-quarter earnings met analysts' expectations, sending its stock price surging after the results were released October 10, the company still widened its losses for the period.

The ad market slump has taken a financial toll on most online media companies, making it all the more crucial for them to shore up profits with for-pay services. In addition to touting its small business services, Yahoo has also said that it would seek to broaden its revenue base with expanded Yahoo Finance offerings.

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