Yahoo 2003 Annual Report Download - page 6

ongoing improvements in all of our
businesses and products and services
will be a natural progression from
where we are today.
Product quality and innovation
will continue to be Yahoo!’s top
priority, in order to encourage users
to invest more time with Yahoo!.
As more users move towards the
Internet, we intend to further
differentiate Yahoo! products and
services. As we enrich the user
experience, we believe we will be
able to build even deeper
relationships, and we expect to
use this as the basis to grow our
premium services business.
A couple of years ago, when
many still questioned if people
would even pay for services on
the Internet, I suggested Yahoo!
could ultimately reach a target
of 10 million unique paying
subscribers. In two short years,
we’re already almost half way
there, and at this time I feel more
confident than ever that goal is very
achievable in the foreseeable future.
Second, we will invest in delivering
more and better broadband content
and services. Industry analysts
forecast that by the end of 2005
there will be more broadband than
dial-up households in the United
States. We believe that Yahoo!,
which already has the largest
proportion of users that come to us
on a broadband connection and the
deepest relationships with them
through our access relationships
worldwide, is well positioned to
take a large share of this emerging
space. In 2004, we will place a
greater emphasis on the integration
of more video and audio in areas
such as search, media, and
communications to enhance our
core free services, along with the
expected introduction of several
new premium services.
Third, we will focus on continued
international growth. We planted
seeds in key international markets in
2003, and we have already seen early
successes, mirroring some of the
progress previously made in the U.S.
Brand advertising is starting to show
signs of improvement. Search and
pay-for-performance advertising is a
fast growing global opportunity that
Yahoo! is addressing by integrating
our algorithmic and monetization
technologies. In 2004 we plan
to extend even more fee-based
services, and expect greater growth
from our BT relationship and
Yahoo! Personals, which currently
exists in a number of European and
Asian countries. We are also
addressing the important emerging
Internet market in China through
our recent acquisition of keyword
search business 3721 Network
Software Company and our auctions-
based joint venture with SINA
Corporation, to complement our
strong and growing businesses in
Taiwan and Korea.
Fourth, we will build upon our
success offering marketing solutions
to a range of clients and plan to
extend our leadership within the
industry. We are entering 2004
with an attractive advertising
platform, made up of the world’s
largest and most engaged online
audience, the most diversified suite
of marketing services, and broad
exposure to an array of clients from
small- and medium-sized businesses
to blue-chip advertisers. With this
as our starting point, we plan to
drive our leadership in online
advertising even further.
In Closing
I am proud of where Yahoo! is today.
Without a doubt, we’re demonstrating
the growing strength and diversity of
our business, and we’re extremely
well positioned to benefit from
some of the most exciting business
opportunities of our time.
My sincere thanks to our
shareholders, users, partners,
customers, and employees for your
continuous support, which has
helped us come this far this fast.
Moving forward, we are setting the
bar even higher. We are a leader
and we plan to extend that
leadership. We will continue to
demonstrate that we can be nimble,
make smart decisions, and stay
focused. More importantly, we are
aware that our challenge is not
simply to deliver strong growth for
the next few years, but rather, to
help ensure Yahoo!’s long-term,
sustainable growth.
Our passion is to never stop trying
to make Yahoo! better, and we’ve
only just begun.
Terry S. Semel
Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer