Stepping up its B2B effort, Yahoo! Inc. launched Yahoo!
Industry
Marketplaces, designed to be a one-stop destination for information and
services aimed at helping industry professionals to research products, find
industry news and make purchasing decisions.
At launch, the three niches are covered: electronics, IT software and IT
hardware.
Each marketplace will provide business owners and professionals with targeted
information and services, research capabilities from product databases,
industry-specific news and a rich-media Webcast center, Yahoo! said.
“Millions of business purchase decision makers are already are using Yahoo!
to search the Internet for industry news, gather information and purchase
products,” said Shannon Ledger, vice president and general manager,
production at Yahoo!. “Highly-focused business destinations around key areas,
such as hardware, software and electronics, are the next logical step for us
to better serve those users and add more depth to our business services.”
Yahoo!, citing Nielsen/NetRatings figures for December, says it is the No. 1
destination site for at-work users with 67.5 percent work reach.
The Electronics Marketplace site offers a procurement site co-branded with
USBid; headlines from Cahners Business Information; and a supplier database
featuring product headings from Thomas Register.
The IT Software Marketplace includes a directory of product and vendor
information from KnowledgeStorm, connecting IT buyers and vendors via an
online, searchable database of more than 20,000 software solutions and
services; a site co-branded with Bitpipe, a syndicator of professional
literature on the Internet; and editorial content from IDG.
The IT Hardware Marketplace has a Bitpipe white paper database from leading
IT hardware industry vendors and analysts; IDG content; development tools,
and information on upcoming tradeshows and seminars.
All the sites have a Webcast Center, which will feature streamed video and
audio programming of industry-specific information, including: video product
releases, Internet-only shows, product training and instructional seminars.
