Yahoo! to start charging for content

Yahoo! is to charge customers for a new financial analysis service in a move to curb declining advertising revenue stream.

The service, incorporated into Yahoo!'s finance portal, will feature analysis from over 150 Wall Street firms, at prices lower than analyst houses have traditionally charged.

Subscribers to the service, launched yesterday, can buy single reports or bundles of five, 10 or 25 for prices ranging between $15 and $50.

The announcement came as Yahoo! reported a huge annual drop in revenue. Second quarter revenue fell to $8.7m from $62.9m for the same quarter the previous year.

Yahoo!'s plan to charge users for specialised content follows recent announcements from The Times and Telegraph newspapers and Encyclopaedia Britannica who all intend to introduce charges for specific content.

Jupiter analyst Olivier Beauvillain said while Yahoo! is following a definite trend it cannot expect to cash in on it any time soon.

"There are a lot of companies experimenting right now," he said. "Their goal is to see how many people will be willing to pay and to see which payment technology to implement. But I wouldn't see it bring in any sort of significant revenue for years."

Jupiter estimates that 15 to 20 per cent of revenue will come from subscription content within three years, with offerings targeting the business sector, such as Yahoo!'s financial analysis service, most likely to succeed.