Yahoo's quest for original content has been breaking news. Now, it has taken an adventurous turn. The company has hired Richard Bangs, an author and filmmaker, to create multimedia packages about exotic and sometimes dangerous expeditions on mountains, rivers and islands around the world.
"Expert adventurer Richard Bangs who has traversed treacherous white water and challenged precarious peaks around the globe and his fellow adventurers will bring some of the world's most exciting journeys to consumers through digital storytelling video, photography and personal accounts," a company release said.
Called Richard Bangs Adventures (http://adventures.yahoo.com), the site's first series will follow American John Harlin III's recent ascent of the Eiger, the same Swiss peak that claimed the life of Harlin's father 40 years earlier. The climb by Harlin's father became the story line for the film, The Eiger Sanction, starring Clint Eastwood. The microsite will take Yahoo users into the life of Harlin III, an avid climber, and the journey of his tribute climb. Some of the footage will be used in an IMAX film scheduled for release by 2007.
"We want to share stories that quicken the pulse and appeal to the growing interest in adventure travel," said Scott Moore, vice president content operations, Yahoo. "We are attempting to use the Internet's unique attributes as a rich storytelling medium to help consumers make discoveries that they wouldn't otherwise have a chance to."
The Eiger is just the start, promises Yahoo. Each month, Richard Bangs Adventures will set out to take users on unique paths. In November, the adventure site will feature the story of "sea gypsies" of the Andaman Islands who survived the tsunami last year using native knowledge. The following month, Yahoo users will be able to follow the family that wins the Casio Richard Bangs Adventures sweepstakes as the family members follow a path taken centuries ago by treasure hunters in Panama.
"I am delighted to be able to tell the poignant stories of people doing extraordinary things," said Bangs. "Yahoo allows us to bring consumers into these stories through a variety of capabilities and we hope that will inspire a new generation of adventure travellers." Yahoo signalled its intent to develop more in-house material last year with the hiring of Lloyd Braun, a former ABC television executive, to run its media division.
Yahoo's decision to plunge into adventure content is not without any basis. It has done its homework well. A recent Yahoo survey showed that Americans spend upwards of $115 billion annually on everything from rockclimbing outings and white water rafting trips to African safaris and Antarctic cruises. As much as 72 per cent of the respondents said they had been on or are planning a trip that involves adventure travel in the next five years. That's its target audience.
Richard Bangs is considered one of the founders of adventure travel. Bangs co-founded Mountain Travel-Sobek nearly 30 years ago and the company is now America's oldest and largest adventure travel firm. Bangs is an entrepreneur, world adventurer, international river explorer, Web pioneer and award-winning author. He led first descents of 35 rivers around the globe, including the Yangtze in China and the Zambezi in Southern Africa. His "Mystery of the Nile", co-authored with Pasquale Scaturro, was a bestseller.
Yahoo has been aggressive in the competition against rivals like Google and Microsoft. Yahoo added Flickr recently, made a deal with Bellsouth, and announced its takeover of Whereonearth. The company has been, of late, laying a lot of emphasis on news and news-related original content. It recently elevated blogs to its news search section, and created a flutter in the news world last month when it announced the hiring of war correspondent Kevin Sites to produce a multimedia website (http://hotzone.yahoo.com) which would report on conflicts around the world. Just as the Hot Zone was going live, the company declared that nine popular writers would be publishing personal finance columns on Yahoo. It has also roped in cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar to write exclusive columns for the cricket microsite on its Indian portal.
It is this stress on content which is making research analysts prefer Yahoo's diversity over Google's monotonous revenue stream. Lauren Rich Fine, managing director of corporate strategy and research at Merrill Lynch's equity research department, wrote shortly after Yahoo announced its Q3 results that one reason the financial services company preferred Yahoo to Google was because of its more diverse offerings. "While Google has a higher share of search queries and revenues, Yahoo has much better user engagement that is being monetised through branded and fee revenues," Fine wrote.
Yahoo's third quarter earnings report, showing a 42 per cent net revenue increase, is more than a result of its much talked about advertising strategy it has actually reaped its content sowings. The Sunnyvale-based corporation reported a profit of $254 million. Third-quarter revenue rose to $1.3 billion and cash flow was $440 million, compared to revenue of $907 million and cash flow of $267 million in the third quarter last year.
