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.
Twitter: jozzua
says:
Now if I were an investor, would I buy Yehey.com?
[...] Yugatech: According to a reliable source (who wants to remain anonymous), Philippine web-portal Yehey is [...]
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.
Twitter: PimpMyiGear
says:
It would be wiser to invest in Sulit.com.ph than in Yehey!
Twitter: letsgosago
says:
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.. ^_^
Twitter: arnoldzafra
says:
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!
Twitter: Teknisyan
says:
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.