Type of site Business | Owner Yahoo! | |
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Website smallbusiness.yahoo.com Launched August 20, 1998; 18 years ago (1998-08-20) (as Yahoo! Small Business) Profiles | ||
Yahoo store transition claim your new aabaco small business account
Aabaco Small Business from Yahoo (formerly Yahoo Small Business) is a company located in Sunnyvale, California, and offers a full range of small business services consisting of ecommerce, web hosting, domains, advertising, and local marketing.
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History
Aabaco Small Business from Yahoo has been serving small business owners for 18 years. Formerly known as Yahoo Small Business, the business has recently gone through a rebrand. And though the name and colors may have changed, the organization remains focused on the same mission: make small business easier.
In 1998, Yahoo acquired Viaweb, makers of a web-based application that allowed users to build and host their own online stores with little technical expertise. Viaweb was purchased for 455,000 shares of Yahoo! stock, valued at about $49 million. Started in 1995 by Paul Graham, Robert Morris, and Trevor Blackwell, Viaweb was claimed to be the world’s first ecommerce application. Upon acquisition, Yahoo! renamed the Viaweb product to Yahoo! Store.
In 1999, Yahoo acquired web hosting service, GeoCities, which was added to the Small Business portfolio. In addition to ecommerce and hosting, customers could also purchase simple domain names. And, powered by the popular and reliable Yahoo! Mail service, business email was added as both a standalone service and as a feature of website and store building packages. Since then, the company has serviced over one million subscribers. Its online retailers have processed over 300 million transactions worth over $68 billion in sales through the ecommerce platform.
In July 2013 the company acquired ecommerce application platform, Lexity. Lexity was integrated into the company as Yahoo! Commerce Central, offering applications for online merchants using a variety of ecommerce platforms.
Recent News
In early 2015, it was announced that Yahoo Small Business would be a part of a spin-off transaction of Yahoo!’s 40 billion shares in Chinese retailer, Alibaba. The Yahoo Small Business product line was renamed Luminate, from Aabaco Small Business in preparation for the spin-off. In November 2015, Yahoo decided to no longer use the Luminate brand for its product line, and instead use Aabaco Small Business as the brand to more closely align with the then to-be parent company, Aabaco Holdings. In December 2015, Yahoo ultimately decided to postpone the spin-off transaction, with Aabaco Small Business remaining a part of Yahoo.
Criticism
Since spinning off from Yahoo many users have reported problems with reliability and issues with their service.
Philanthropy
Following Hurricane Katrina, the Aabaco Small Business from Yahoo! team partnered with BellSouth to help businesses in the Gulf Coast area setup an online presence. On April 7, 2006 the Small Business team traveled to New Orleans to train and advise small business owners on website and ecommerce development. Silk Road Collection, a New Orleans-based antique shop reported a 23% increase in sales after receiving assistance from the Small Business team during this time.