Internet powerhouse Yahoo Inc will begin dispensing advice about personal finances in its latest bid to boost its own finances.
The new money management package, which was scheduled to make its debut on Thursday night, is being offered as an extension of Yahoo's decade-old finance section -- one of the Web's top-ranked destinations for business and investment information.
Yahoo is battling to maintain its status as the most visited Web site in the US, although many analysts give the company little hope of holding on to those bragging rights now that Internet search leader Google Inc owns the heavily trafficked video sharing site YouTube.
Finance is one of the areas where Yahoo holds a huge advantage over Google, which branched into the field just 10 months ago. With 9.6 million US visitors last month, Yahoo's finance section ranked second behind Microsoft Corp's MSN Money, according to comScore Media Metrix. Google's finance section did not draw enough traffic to show up on Media Metrix's listings.
Yahoo decided to widen its focus to include more simple money matters because many people are more interested in balancing their checkbooks than juggling their stock portfolios, said Scott Moore, who runs the company's news and information division.
By reaching out to a broader audience, Yahoo hopes to lure more advertisers and accelerate recently lackluster revenue growth that has lagged far behind the pace of Google. That gap is expected to be accentuated again during the next two weeks as Yahoo and Google report their fourth-quarter earnings.
The personal finance section will include tips and tools for household budgeting, tax planning, careers, real estate and debt management. Most of the content will be provided by other sources, including the Wall Street Journal, the Motley Fool, Consumer Reports and CNNMoney.com.
Yahoo's decelerating growth has disillusioned investors, contributing to a 28 percent decline in the company's stock price since 2005.
A slowdown in financial services advertising late last year exacerbated Yahoo's misery, but Moore said the company already was already developing a personal finance section before that problem came up.
The personal finance initiative represents the third new information channel launched in the past eight months, following sections revolving around technology and food.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS