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At the first Startup School in Boston someone mentioned that Yahoo Store had about 235,000 stores and $5 billion/year in store revenue, if I'm remembering corre

At the first Startup School in Boston someone mentioned that Yahoo Store had about 235,000 stores and $5 billion/year in store revenue, if I'm remembering correctly. The smallest available monthly fee(1) is currently $40 and the smallest transaction fee is 0.75% thus their annual revenue must be greater than (235000 x 40)+($5 billion x 0.75%)=$46.9 million. I'm guessing it's rather a bit more than that. 1) http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/plans.php http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce/plans.php

pg 19y ago
It is unlikely they have 235,000 stores. I would guess at most 30-50,000.
- ratsbane 19y ago
  Now I'm curious about this. They list 71,245 under "shop by store."(1) However, I think this number may be low. Are inactive stores listed in that directory? I'm sure Yahoo is billing for more than a few stores which never got beyond intentions.(2) We set up a test store a few hours ago "filmat16.com."(3) It's not been published yet so there's nothing there. It's also not listed in the directory by name (although this may be a function of time.) If the $5b sales figure is correct (and I wish I could remember the original source of those numbers) and we use the 71,245 store count that's $70,180 per store/year. Reasonable? Also my original estimate didn't take into account the (currently) $50 setup fee or fees for credit card processing (outsourced, but surely they make a bit from that), DNS fees, advertising revenue, etc. In any case I think Yahoo has made rather a lot of money from their purchase of Viaweb - which is good for people creating startups which might be bought by Yahoo etc. 1) http://shopping.yahoo.com/stores/sd.html http://shopping.yahoo.com/stores/sd.html Is it reasonable to assume every store listed in that directory is a Yahoo store? 2) If that number is in any way related to the percentage of people who don't send back rebate forms it could be huge. 3) Not a completely for testing purposes; we're going to sell some 16mm films that have been sitting around in a closet for years. http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html
  - pg 19y ago
    > Is it reasonable to assume every store listed in that directory is a Yahoo store? No. Any web store can be in Y! Shopping.
    - ratsbane 19y ago
      You're right. I see that now. I would like to understand better how many Yahoo stores there are, how many are inactive, how many use the different services Y provides (shipping, inventory, etc.) Is it fair to say that Yahoo hasn't added many features to the stores since Viaweb? There are a lot of functions which Yahoo store operators have to perform which Yahoo has never added provisions for.

pg 19y ago

It is unlikely they have 235,000 stores. I would guess at most 30-50,000.

ratsbane 19y ago
Now I'm curious about this. They list 71,245 under "shop by store."(1) However, I think this number may be low. Are inactive stores listed in that directory? I'm sure Yahoo is billing for more than a few stores which never got beyond intentions.(2) We set up a test store a few hours ago "filmat16.com."(3) It's not been published yet so there's nothing there. It's also not listed in the directory by name (although this may be a function of time.) If the $5b sales figure is correct (and I wish I could remember the original source of those numbers) and we use the 71,245 store count that's $70,180 per store/year. Reasonable? Also my original estimate didn't take into account the (currently) $50 setup fee or fees for credit card processing (outsourced, but surely they make a bit from that), DNS fees, advertising revenue, etc. In any case I think Yahoo has made rather a lot of money from their purchase of Viaweb - which is good for people creating startups which might be bought by Yahoo etc. 1) http://shopping.yahoo.com/stores/sd.html http://shopping.yahoo.com/stores/sd.html Is it reasonable to assume every store listed in that directory is a Yahoo store? 2) If that number is in any way related to the percentage of people who don't send back rebate forms it could be huge. 3) Not a completely for testing purposes; we're going to sell some 16mm films that have been sitting around in a closet for years. http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html
- pg 19y ago
  > Is it reasonable to assume every store listed in that directory is a Yahoo store? No. Any web store can be in Y! Shopping.
  - ratsbane 19y ago
    You're right. I see that now. I would like to understand better how many Yahoo stores there are, how many are inactive, how many use the different services Y provides (shipping, inventory, etc.) Is it fair to say that Yahoo hasn't added many features to the stores since Viaweb? There are a lot of functions which Yahoo store operators have to perform which Yahoo has never added provisions for.