Yahoo!
fr: Yahoo!de: Yahooes: Yahoo!it: Yahoo!| location_city | 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale, |
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| Year | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 1 625 | 3 574 | 5 258 | 6 426 |
| EBITDA | 453 | 1 000 | 1 505 | 1 066 |
| Net Results | 238 | 840 | 1 896 | 751 |
| Staff | 5 500 | 7 600 | 9 800 | 11 400 |
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- Source :'OpesC'
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Yahoo! International :
Yahoo! is known across the world with its multi-lingual interface. They have sites for different countries, among English sites, such as Yahoo! Canada, Yahoo! Australia (Yahoo!7), Yahoo! New Zealand (Yahoo!Xtra) and Yahoo! India.Criticism and controversy :
Yahoo paid inclusion controversy :
In March 2004, Yahoo launched a paid inclusion program whereby commercial websites are guaranteed listings on the Yahoo search engine after payment.AdWeek: "Yahoo! Introduces Paid-Inclusion Program" March 2, 2004 This scheme is lucrative, but has proved unpopular both with website marketers (who are reluctant to pay), and the public (who are unhappy about the paid-for listings being indistinguishable from other search results).Wired: "Paid Inclusion Losing Charm?" July 5, 2004 As of October 2006, Paid Inclusion doesn't guarantee any commercial listing, it only helps the paid inclusion customers, by crawling their site more often and by providing some statistics on the searches that led to the page and some additional smart links (provided by customers as feeds) below the actual url.Adware and Spyware :
Yahoo has also been criticized for funding spyware and adware — advertising from Yahoo's clients often appears on-screen in pop-ups generated from adware that a user may have installed on their computer without realizing it by accepting online offers to download software to fix computer clocks or improve computer security, add browser enhancements, etc. The frequency of advertising pop-ups for spyware, generated from a partnership with advertising distributor Walnut Ventures, who had a direct partnership with Direct Revenue, could be increased or decreased based on Yahoo's immediate revenue needs, according to some former employees in Yahoo's sales department.http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_29/b3993005.htmhttp://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051116_941267.htmWork in China :
Yahoo, along with Google China, Microsoft, Cisco, AOL, Skype, Nortel and others, has cooperated with the Chinese government in implementing a system of internet censorship in mainland China.Unlike Google or Microsoft, which keep confidential records of its users outside mainland China, Yahoo! stated that the company will not protect the privacy and confidentiality of its Chinese customers from the authorities.Gunther, Marc. Tech execs get grilled over mainland China business: Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco, facing attack in Congress, say they're doing more good than harm in China." CNN. February 16, 2006.
Human rights advocates such as Human Rights Watch and media groups such as Reporters Without Borders state that it is "ironic that companies whose existence depends on freedom of information and expression have taken on the role of censor."
Chinese dissident imprisonment controversy :
In April 2005, Shi Tao, a journalist working for a Chinese newspaper, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Changsha Intermediate People's Court of Hunan Province, China (First trial case no 29), for "providing state secrets to foreign entities". The "secret", as Shi Tao's family claimed, refers to a brief list of censorship orders he sent from a Yahoo Mail account to the Asia Democracy Forum before the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident.http://www.wmd.org/democracynews/may1102sup.html wmd.orgThe verdict stated Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) confirmed that an IP address, registered by a Hunan newspaper that Shi Tao worked for, accessed the mail account at a particular time. He had sent the message through an anonymous Yahoo account, but police had gone straight to his offices and picked him up. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is concerned with the ease with which Mr. Shi had been caught. In February 2006, Yahoo General Counsel submitted a statement to the U.S. Congress in which Yahoo denies knowing the true nature of the case against Shi Tao.Yahoo's Statement before the U.S. Congress, dated February 15, 2006 In April 2006, Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) is under investigation by Hong Kong's Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
Criticism of Yahoo intensified when the court document stated the company aided Chinese authorities in the case of dissident Li Zhi. In December 2003 Li Zhi was sentenced to 8 years imprisonment for "inciting subversion".
On 2 June 2006, the union representing journalists in the UK and Ireland (NUJ) called on its 40,000 members to boycott all Yahoo Inc. products and services to protest the Internet company's reported actions in China.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060602/wr_nm/media_yahoo_nuj_dc_5 News.yahoo.com
In July 2007, evidence surfaced detailing the warrant which the Chinese authorities sent to Yahoo officials, highlighting "State Secrets" as the charge against Shi Tao. The warrant requests "Email account registration information for huoyan1989@yahoo.com.cn, all login times, corresponding IP addresses, and relevant email content from February 22, 2004 to present."Slashdot: Your Rights Online: Letter Casts Doubt On Yahoo China TestimonyDui Hua: Police Document Sheds Additional Light on Shi Tao Casehttp://www.duihua.org/press/news/070725_ShiTao.pdf Analyst reports and human rights organizations have said that this evidence directly contradicts Yahoo's testimony before the U.S. Congress in February 2006.Voice of America, July 31, 2007
Yahoo contends it must respect the laws of governments in jurisdictions where it is operating.
Sued in US court for outing Chinese dissident :
Wang Xiaoning is a Chinese dissident from Shenyang who was arrested by authorities of the People's Republic of China for publishing controversial material online.In 2000 and 2001, Wang, who was an engineer by profession, posted electronic journals in a Yahoo group calling for democratic reform and an end to single-party rule. He was arrested in September 2002 after Yahoo assisted Chinese authorities by providing information. In September 2003, Wang was convicted of charges of "incitement to subvert state power" and sentenced to ten years in prison.
On April 18, 2007, Xiaoning's wife Yu Ling sued Yahoo! under human rights laws in federal court in San Francisco, California, United States. Wang Xiaoning is named as a plaintiff in the Yahoo suit, which was filed with help from the World Organization for Human Rights USA. "Yahoo is guilty of 'an act of corporate irresponsibility,' said Morton Sklar, executive director of the group. 'Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested."
Yahoo's decision to assist China's authoritarian government came as part of a policy of reconciling its services with the Chinese government's policies. This came after China blocked Yahoo services for a time. As reported in The Washington Post and many media sources:
- The suit says that in 2001, Wang was using a Yahoo e-mail account to post anonymous writings to an Internet mailing list. The suit alleges that Yahoo, under pressure from the Chinese government, blocked that account. Wang set up a new account via Yahoo and began sending material again; the suit alleges that Yahoo gave the government information that allowed it to identify and arrest Wang in September 2002. The suit says prosecutors in the Chinese courts cited Yahoo's cooperation.
Human rights organizations groups are basing their case on a 217-year-old U.S. law to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad, an effort the Bush administration has opposed:
- In recent years, activists working with overseas plaintiffs have sued roughly two dozen businesses under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which the activists say grants jurisdiction to American courts over acts abroad that violate international norms. Written by the Founding Fathers in 1789 for a different purpose, the law was rarely invoked until the 1980s.
On August 28, 2007, the World Organization for Human Rights sued Yahoo for allegedly passing information (email and IP address) with the Chinese government that caused the arrests of writers and dissidents. The suit was filed in San Francisco for journalists, Shi Tao, and Wang Xiaoning. Yahoo stated that it supported privacy and free expression for it worked with other technology companies to solve human rights concerns.BBC NEWS, Yahoo in China human rights case
On November 6, 2007, the US congressional panel criticised Yahoo! for not giving full details to the House Foreign Affairs Committee the previous year, stating it had been "at best inexcusably negligent" and at worst "deceptive".BBC NEWS, US rebukes Yahoo over China case
Chatrooms and message boards :
As a result of media scrutiny relating to Internet child predators and a lack of significant ad revenues, Yahoo's "user created" chatrooms were closed down in June 2005.http://news.com.com/Yahoo+closes+chat+rooms+over+child+sex+concerns/2100-1025_3-5759705.html News.com Yahoo News' message board section was closed on December 19, 2006 due to the trolling phenomenon.http://news.yahoo.com/page/messageboards News.yahoo.comImage search :
On May 25 2006, Yahoo's image search was criticized for bringing up sexually explicit images even when SafeSearch was on. This was discovered by a teacher who was intending to use the service with a class to search for "www". Yahoo's response to this was, "Yahoo is aware of this issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible".http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/25/yahoo_school_project/ Theregister.co.ukShark finning controversy :
Yahoo! is a 40% owner of Alibaba, which facilitates the sale of shark-derived products.Business Week: "Sharks Circle China's Alibaba.com" July 20, 2007 After investing in Alibaba, Yahoo execs were asked about this issue, and responded: "We know the sale of shark products is both legal in Asia and a centuries-old tradition. This issue is largely a cultural-practices one."ScubaPRWire: "Moving a Mountain - Eco-Groups Pressure Yahoo! To Divest from Global Shark Finning" July 6, 2007 However, the "cultural" claim (which is pushed by the trade)Mickey News: Disney Hong Kong insists on shark's fin-soup meals has been contested.The Standard: Disney ducks shark attacksSee also :
- List of search engines
- List of acquisitions by Yahoo!
- Timeline of events for Yahoo!
- Yahoo! Answers
- Yahoo! Fantasy Sports
- Yahoo! Sports
- YMSG - Yahoo! Messenger Protocol