Founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, Yahoo is a technology company that provides services and products for the Internet community. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and operates in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific segments. Its business model is centered on informing users and entertaining them. Its services include a search engine, a web portal, and related services. In addition, it has a subsidiary called Alibaba. This Chinese e-commerce company serves as a hybrid of eBay and Amazon. It has become one of the largest Internet companies in the world.
Yahoo began as a web directory. It was created by two graduate students at Stanford University. In its early years, the site consisted of bookmark lists organized by categories. The site was initially hosted by Netscape communications. Its owners later added a search engine.
In the 1990s, Yahoo became a pioneer in the internet industry. Its original founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, left Stanford University to form their own company. The company is still in operation. It is owned by Verizon Communications since 2017. The company is in the digital media and communications sector. It offers a variety of content, including news, finance, and email. In recent years, the company has also acquired a stake in Alibaba, which serves as a hybrid of Amazon and eBay.
The company began as a web directory, but in the mid-1990s, it expanded to a full-featured web portal. It is now a global Internet service provider that is owned by Verizon Communications. Yahoo has grown to offer a wide range of services, including e-mail, news, and chat groups. However, in recent years, the company has struggled to hold on to a small market share in digital advertising. It is likely to lose further market share if new products do not catch on.
Yahoo is a web portal that integrates a directory of websites and a search engine. It also includes other features such as online utilities and online games. The company offers a free email service. Its website is designed in a way that is easy to navigate. A user can browse hundreds of thousands of well-architectured sites. The user can also browse through Yahoo's own news, weather, and chat groups.
Yahoo has been criticized for its role in US government spying. Former NSA and CIA analyst Edward Snowden claimed that the company was a conduit for mass surveillance programs. It was also accused of negligence when it allowed the stealing of user data from up to 500 million users.
In recent years, the company has been plagued by hacker attacks. Its user-powered Q&A site, Yahoo Answers, has been hit several times. The company has also been investigated for possible negligence. The site is available in 12 languages and in non-Latin characters in Asia.
The company is currently owned by Apollo Global Management and Verizon Communications, which acquired the company in 2016. Yahoo is currently 90% owned by Apollo and 10% by Verizon.