Yahoo launches video shopping site

Yahoo's initial foray into broadband, FinanceVision, a continuous feed of financial video content, was targeted at professionals at work. The company reasoned that a far higher proportion of workplaces have broadband Internet access than homes. Now the portal is moving aggressively toward home users. It launched a directory of short Web films last week and said it wanted to charge its users in the future for some rich media services -- services that will probably start with a music subscription plan. The video shopping site targets people -- at work and at home -- who are shopping for holiday presents. Unlike with FinanceVision, Yahoo will not produce original content for ShoppingVision. Instead, it is re-purposing programming from ValueVision's (VVTV) cable shopping network. And rather than encourage Web surfers to watch a continuous video feed, as it does with FinanceVision, Yahoo will set up ShoppingVision to make it convenient for shoppers to watch a short video clip on a product they are interested in. Yahoo hopes the new site will drive e-commerce revenues. The portal wants to add more non-advertising revenue streams, including transaction fees on auctions, service fees from corporate portal customers and rich-media subscriptions.