In an effort to attract paying business users early, Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday is expanding its domain name and Web hosting plans for small businesses.
Yahoo, of Sunnyvale, Calif., will introduce a $9.95 option for registering a Web domain name, pitting it more directly against low-cost registrars such as Go Daddy Group Inc. The option comes with a single, customizable Web page. Yahoo also will substantially increase the limits on Web site and e-mail storage, bandwidth and the number of e-mail accounts across its six small-business hosting plans, said Rich Riley, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Small Business. The increases range across the plans, but as an example, Yahoo's $11.95 Web-hosting "starter" package will expand from 10 to 25 e-mail addresses, from 50MB to 2,000MB of disk storage, and from 20GB to 25GB of data transfer, Riley said.
For all its small-business offerings, Yahoo uses its own Web hosting, e-mail and e-commerce services. But for domain names, Yahoo is not an official registrar and instead contracts with registrar Melbourne IT Ltd. Yahoo already sold domain-name registrations, but they were part of its e-mail or hosting packages and the lowest-priced option started at $35, Riley said. The new domain-name plan is aimed at smaller companies wanting to reserve names and display a basic page.
News source: eWeek
