Dana S. Tellier, Thu, Mar 21, 2002 at 02:10:52PM -0500: > > Hmmm... I think I have to disagree with you a bit on this one. > While it *does* cost more to provide web access, I don't think it would > make them profitable at all. It *would* make them very unpopular, > however. I would make a wager that the majority of Yahoo's customers are > people who just want a free e-mail account that's easily accessible > anywhere. Once they charged for web access, I think nearly all their > customers would disappear and turn to Hotmail, as it's the only other > "free" well-known web access e-mail out there (I'm sure there may be a few > holdouts left, but most people won't know about them). >
Dana, I did think about that. But a few things crossed my mind. 1. Say Yahoo has 20 million users. If 99% are completely miffed and leave, but only 1% decide to pay $30 a year, that's $6 million a year. Not bad. Add the cost of liquidating or realloacting the resources used for the 99% that left and there is more money to be made. 2. If Yahoo charged for webmail, Hotmail would start charging soon after. 3. It's only a matter of time before free webmail disappears altogether. I think Hotmail and Yahoo are just waiting for the other to go first. g
msg13601/pgp00000.pgp
Description: PGP signature
