Yahoo! Australia (formerly Yahoo7 between 2006 and 2018) is the Australian subsidiary of global internet company

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

Originally a 50/50 joint venture between Yahoo! and Seven West Media, it has been a 100% subsidiary of

Verizon Media Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas i ...

since March 2018. Yahoo! is a

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...

, providing email, online news and lifestyle content, as well as weather, travel and retail comparison services.

History

Origins

Yahoo!'s services originally came to Australia in 1997 with Yahoo! Australia launching on 1 September that year.

Seven Media Group Seven West Media Limited is an ASX-listed media company and is Australia's largest diversified media business, with an extensive presence in broadcast television, print and online publishing. Seven Group Holdings Ltd (SGH), a company contro ...

founded i7 in September 2000 as their online service. In October 2001, Seven partnered with internet service provider AOL and established a joint venture called ''AOL7'' in an attempt to boost the i7 platform. However, the partnership was unsuccessful with AOL reporting its biggest quarterly loss in U.S. history in April 2002, and Seven and AOL later selling the venture to Primus Telecommunications in February 2004. i7 was replaced by Seven's new website, '
Seven.com.au
'', soon afterwards.

Yahoo7

Yahoo7 was founded in January 2006 as a cross-media entity which would expand the content distribution networks of both internet-centric Yahoo and broadcast corporation Seven Media Group (now Seven West Media). Yahoo7's logo incorporates Yahoo! branding with Seven West Media's red "7". Yahoo7 replaced Yahoo!'s Australian and New Zealand websites which had been in operation since September 1997, taking on the majority of Seven's online operations in the process. Ryan Stokes, current chairman of Seven's Pacific Magazines division, said in a media release that the Yahoo7 entity would provide a "leading platform to engage the online audiences with the best global products and locally relevant media content for their connected lives". In December 2006, Yahoo7 expanded its presence in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

by partnering with

Telecom New Zealand Spark New Zealand Limited is a New Zealand telecommunications company providing fixed-line telephone services, a mobile phone network, internet access services, and (through its Spark Digital division) ICT services to businesses. It was know ...

to establish

Yahoo!Xtra Yahoo!Xtra was a New Zealand web portal that existed under that name from 2007 to 2011. It was a joint venture between Yahoo!7 and Telecom New Zealand (now Spark). Yahoo!7 held a 51 percent stake in the company and Telecom NZ held 49 percent. B ...

. The venture was rebranded as Yahoo! New Zealand in April 2011 after Telecom sold its 49% share back to Yahoo7. In recent years, Yahoo7 has made a series of high-profile online acquisitions to supplement its core search and marketing businesses. The company purchased Australian sports tipping site OzTips in mid-2010 and acquired Australian group buying site Spreets for $40m in early 2011. Spreets saw its membership increase by 140 per cent to 1.18m since the acquisition. In March 2018, Seven West Media sold its 50% stake in Yahoo7 to

Oath Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon ', also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise taken by a sacrality as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to g ...

. This is despite earlier reports where Oath would sell their stake. By this time, Seven was in the process of uncoupling its services from Yahoo7, through the establishment of

7plus 7plus (stylised as 7+) is a video on demand, catch-up TV service run by the Seven Network. The service became available on 27 November 2017. 7plus also offers online live streaming of Channel 7, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, Racing.com and 7Sport. 7p ...

replacing Plus 7, 7NEWS.com.au becoming the home for

Seven News ''7NEWS'' is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while flagship 6pm bulletins are ...

, and their travel website: 7Travel.

Products and services

Online content

Yahoo! derives its content from a variety of news and online media sites, as well as third-party content. The company runs a number of online sections which collate and augment content from various media outlets. Yahoo! also publishes an increasing volume of online-only content particularly lifestyle journalism and rich media published through the lifestyle section.

Plus7

In January 2010, Yahoo! launched

Plus7 7plus (stylised as 7+) is a video on demand, catch-up TV service run by the Seven Network. The service became available on 27 November 2017. 7plus also offers online live streaming of Channel 7, 7two, 7mate, 7flix, Racing.com and 7Sport. 7p ...

, an online catch-up portal for viewers to stream select TV shows with locked commercials and

updates for a limited period of time after airing. The free service allowed users to watch a range of video content on demand, full length episodes from Channel Seven,

7mate 7mate is an Australian free-to-air digital television multichannel, which was launched by the Seven Network on 25 September 2010. The channel contains sport and regular programs aimed primarily to a male audience, with programming drawn from a c ...

and other content partners.

Web

Yahoo! also hosts a localised version of its Yahoo! communication and search as well as other

vertical search A vertical search engine is distinct from a general web search engine, in that it focuses on a specific segment of online content. They are also called specialty or topical search engines. The vertical content area may be based on topicality, media ...

services such as

Yahoo Answers Yahoo! Answers was a community-driven List of Question and Answer Websites, question-and-answer (Q&A) website or knowledge market owned by Yahoo! where users would ask questions and answer those submitted by others, and upvote them to increase ...

Logo

From its creation in 2006 until late 2014, Yahoo7 used a logo identical to the common red logo of the time, with the addition of the

Seven Network The Seven Network (commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is a major Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by Seven West Media Limited, and is one of five main free-to-air television networks in Australia ...

logo and an identical red colouring. This logo was replaced with the updated Yahoo! logo introduced to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 2013, but included the Seven Network logo.

Notes and references

External links

* {{Yahoo! Inc. Yahoo! international Web portals Internet properties established in 1997 Australian websites Australian companies established in 1997 Mass media companies established in 1997 Mass media companies of Australia Seven Network