Yahoo Launches Free Business ISP

The partnership with EqualFooting.com and Spinway hopes to saturate America's business market with Internet access.

by Jayson Matthews of siliconvalley.internet.com [October 16, 2000]

Portal giant Yahoo! announced a partnership today to offer free ISP services to small businesses.

The announcement comes just days after Yahoo! (NASD: YHOO) saw its stock fall to a near 52-week low, due largely in part to a widespread decline in advertising throughout its network.

The offering stems from a collaboration between Yahoo!, business-to-business (B2B) service company EqualFooting.com and Sunnyvale-based Spinway, the company best known for powering Kmart's popular (though still unprofitable) free "Bluelight" ISP service.

The co-branded service can now be downloaded through EqualFooting.com's Web site, but CD-ROM copies are also being distributed to millions of small businesses through EqualFooting's corporate and association partnerships. As its name implies, EqualFooting works to give small businesses a helping hand in competing with larger entities, specifically through eMarketplaces that assist with purchasing, financing, and shipping.

President Angie Kim says the new offering is just another attempt to rank small businesses on equal ground with the big boys. "This service not only gives current Internet users free access, but will introduce more small businesses to the Internet's powerful tools and resources," she says. Gosh, businesses are using the Internet
According to IDC, more than 7.5 million small businesses in the United States have low but growing Internet penetration; 70% have computers, and of these, 40% have Internet access, but fewer than 30% are active Internet users.

Drew Lanham, senior director of business development atYahoo!, says the company hopes providing free Internet access to these businesses will help Yahoo! brand itself to a largely untapped market.

"EqualFooting.com's Free ISP provides Internet access with an integrated suite of Yahoo! tools and services — all at no cost — to encourage small businesses to utilize online resources that can save them time and money," says Lanham. "This program makes it possible for Yahoo! to offer personalized services and commerce solutions to EqualFooting.com's customer base."

Spinway is providing the technology infrastructure and access software for the service, the consumer counterpart of which already boasts more than six million registered users.

As with the consumer end, Spinway's advertising technology for the small business ISP will display partner logos and Web site links on the navigation bar and dial-up screen of a branded dial-up program, as well as integrate content and logos with personalized home pages that load each time the service is activated.

Spinway currently covers 96% of the United States with local dial-up numbers in over 5,000 cities.

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