According to a reliable source (who wants to remain anonymous), Philippine web-portal Yehey is being put up for sale by parent company iVantage Corp.
Yehey! Corp has slowing been veering away from the internet advertising model and gone into web development/web design, e-commerce (Kaban) and digital marketing, among others. Yehey’s biggest clients include San Miguel Corp., Isuzu, Ateneo De Manila and Procter and Gamble.
Apparently, the business model hasn’t really panned out for the team of about 90+ people at Yehey! and the current revenue isn’t anywhere near the earlier target of Php140 Million for 2009 {via GMANews}. They made Php71 Million in revenues last year.
Yehey! has also abandoned earlier plans of going public (first reported about the IPO last February 2007 as well as the comment from CEO Donald Lim).
At least one key executive has been “let go” and there’s big possibility more heads will roll. Unless the team can do some magic trick and hit the targets, Yehey’s biggest chance of survival is when it gets sold and infused with fresh capital.
Updates:
- In the first quarter of 2009, the firm reported a net loss of P7.4 million, from a net income of P2.4 million in the comparative period last year. In its 2008 annual filing, the firm reported a Php7 million net loss {Business Mirror}.
- In a July 7, 2009 story on Business Mirror, iVantage corporate secretary Bayani K. Tan said the company is “trying its best” to list by way of introduction in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). In the comments, Nix Nolledo says Yehey has since been listed already. That might have only happened in the last 3 weeks.
- Yehey had a net loss of Php10.9 million in 2006. Revenues in 2007 was Php23.3 million and tripled it to Php71 Million in 2008 {via GMANews} but was still in the red by Php7 Million. Yehey has adjusted 2009 initial revenue projections from Php140 million in January to just Php80 to Php90 Million by July.
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Now if I were an investor, would I buy Yehey.com?
Go Abe 50-50 tayo haha.
yugs, eto na ung inaantay natin investment nina spidey. lol!
I cannot fathom how they are even earning in the millions. You have half their traffic, which means you should be earning 35 mil a year from yugatech alone.
I guess I’m suffering from a major disconnect with users of Yehey, whoever they are. Proof that millions of Filipinos are indeed not just silent but invisible.
I checked compete. PMPtoday now has more traffic than Yehey, and we are almost on the same level on the number of top search terms.
It would be wiser to invest in Sulit.com.ph than in Yehey!
They’re turning a new leaf and changing site interface sometime August.
hmmmm I wonder why… :p
Katexter, but reputation wise, Yehey is a more attractive advertising platform in comparison, mababa lang traffic according to available metrics.
Infusion of capital is not necessarily the solution to Yehey’s problem. What’s wrong with Yehey now is that they suffer from a lack of competitive advantage. What exactly are they right now? I for one don’t know.
If they’re a search engine, well they can’t compete with Google. If they’re an information portal, well we have Yahoo Philippines, PEP.ph, Inquirer, GMANews, etc. Community? Probably, but I’ve yet to see a die-hard Yehey fan.
The only way I think Yehey can survive is to become the best local internet marketing and advertising platform. Other than that, they’re doomed.
kung may bibili man ng yehey, sana pinoy din.. ^_^
What is Yehey, or rather What Yehey used to be? – It was Yahoo of the Philippines.
What Yehey needs right now? A game-changing deal like what Yahoo just entered into with Microsoft…
JoeyBoy and Yuga – sama ako sa investment…lol!
The problem with yehey! is that people have this impression that they’re a legit web portal. since the site was founded in Yahoo!’s hey day. So people think that yehey is a cheap imitation of Yahoo.. What (yehey) they need to do is heavy promotions in educating people about the Yehey brand, they should tell people the true identity of Yehey… just like what Yahoo Philippines is doing… like what Pep is doing, like what Multiply is doing.. and so on.
Hopefully they can rebound from this mishap..
Hey Abe,
Not sure about the Yehey for sale part, but what I do know are the following:
– Yehey’s sales have tripled over the past couple of years
– A ratio of 1 million plus pesos per employee in revenue is pretty good
– Yehey has a lot of interesting proprietary projects that have a lot of promise, revenue wise
– Yehey has listed by way of introduction already so their shares are actually listed in the PSE.
– The key executive who left started his own media business (non-digital) so he wasn’t exactly laid off. In fact, he left on pretty good terms with the company.
Anyway, maybe you should ask Donald to make an official statement on this.
Thanks and more power!
Nix
LOL. This one is a white elephant? I mean what exactly does it do?
Hahaha, it was pretty novel when it was new. A pinoy search engine. But now, what is it?
Hahaha promises of revenue are not revenue I’ll be surprised if someone does buy this even for 10,000 pesos. Hahaha. What a joke.
Yehey! is for sale? whoa… how much?
sali ako sa investment nyo nila spidey at joey yugs!
Not a good investment to buy IMO.
It’s just too risky for acquisition. Traffic is dropping fast.
It needs a total site overhaul and some major damage control.
Obviously the site needs a new look / new change since there are no signs of growth.
If only the mp3-codes.com team can run Yehey or even Friendster and some investor funding perhaps we can make it a lot bigger than it is today LOL.
Dale of mp3-codes.com
ym:alexdale_lsg@yahoo.com
I’ve just heard of Yehey a few years back, but never really dug deep into it. All I know was, it was local rip-off of Yahoo! so yeah, for it to survive, it must re-invent itself and establish a more coherent and unique identity.
Yehey is for sale? Just like the ultra-hitech, super-original, mega-brainstormed PinoyTube? Now, that IS the surprise of the century!
PISO pwede na?
me gumagamit pa pala ng yehey.
yehey?
http://dloadtech.blogspot.com
yehey should transform itself into a local ad network, international ad networks pays peanuts for local traffic.
How about they try spending 30,000 a month for advertising on TV? Wow! Through this baka, may mga bago sila makukuhang customer.. Small & Medium size businesses.
i thought they were sort of an online ad and marketing agency? search engine din pala? they didn’t inform us about that hmmmm
I’m happy to see Yehey go away. It was a copycat website portal that offered no original or useful features. The search feature was awful. I am actually surprised they are still operating today.
may yehey pa pala…. akala ko, deads na yan years ago.
Yehey used to be one of my favorite websites in the past. Now I can’t even remember the last time I visited them. If only they were more aggressive in promotion and advertising.
Hey guys!
I used to work for Yehey! from 2002 up until the the time that it DID make its turn around in terms of revenue, but have since moved on to a similar career in a different company (so what I’m about to say isn’t the official word, so to speak).
Anyway, I agree with a lot of comments here… at the start Yehey! was a confused brand. Search engine? Portal? Online advertising agency? And with web channels and services coming up and down over the course of the years I was working there, I for one struggled to also find that one thing that would break the barrier and bring Yehey out of its rut.
In truth Yehey WAS a search portal. Localized content was its primary selling point at the time, until niche websites and blogs hit the mainstream. When that happened, (and content IS still king)… Yehey sorely lacked the needed ammunition to fight on.
But then came Donald Lim. And with his impressive background in marketing and advertising, and a new gameplan, Yehey! was no longer just a website, but a corporation… true it’s foundation was the website, Yehey.com, but Yehey! Corp is so much more…
Under its wing there is the very successful online marketing solutions team and the extremely creative geniuses behind a long list of local advertising and client websites (hence the millions in revenue). Yehey! Corp also adapted to the now very successful social media marketing platform which I was fortunate to be a part of in its infancy. Included here are your blog events, social media and viral marketing campaigns, and so on. And let’s not forget their already successful payment gateway, Kaban, resurrected from its former, confused self to a more trustworthy and highly reliable service. PinoyHenyo is also one of Yehey! Corp’s greatest achievements as of late, as well as their other projects now making waves in the webosphere, including Stir.ph and other niche websites.
Anyway, bottomline… Yehey.com–the website–is in trouble and has been for years, hence all the negative feedback from most people which is clearly obvious in the comments here.
But Yehey! Corp., which is the entity being discussed here, has been a highly successful player in the local internet scene and digital marketing landscape over the past few years.
I understand where most of you are coming from and yes I too share the same sentiments: Yehey.com needs a major overhaul to stay in the game.
But I repeat and strongly adhere to with much vigor (grabe na sa over ha? strongly na with much vigor…): YEHEY.COM IS NOT YEHEY! CORP… merely a part of the bigger whole.
And quite frankly, with the direction Donald has taken the company, they’re looking very profitable and could be a very delicious treat for potential investors.
I for one would love to buy, even a small piece if possible.
Haba pala reply ko… LOL. I will blog. =P
Geez..ginaya din pala nila ang yahoo answers. nakakahiya naman. :S