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KEEPER OF THE LIST
COMPANY Yahoo! Inc., Co-Founder and Chief Yahoo
NET WORTH $3 billion
AGE 30
E-MAIL jerry@yahoo-inc.com
BIO Yang doesn't like it when people call his baby the center of cyberspace. There is
no center, he argues. But if Yahoo is not the center, then it is certainly--in
webspeak--the main hub. What started in 1994 as a list (updated daily) of Web
destinations solidified its lead this year as the people's portal. Still true to the
original business plan, Yahoo is free, but it actually makes money, a rarity among
Internet businesses. It's on track to net $100 million this year. Notable acquisitions
this year include Geocities, a thriving community of homegrown websites, and
Broadcast.com, a popular streaming audio-video source. Both strengthen
Yahoo's position against chief competitors America Online and the Microsoft
Network. Yang, born in Taiwan and raised in San Jose, Calif., is the company's
winsome cover boy, who oversees that strategy and those corporate alliances.
Co-creator David Filo keeps a low profile and helps run the back end. But what
we really want to know is who's behind those TV ads. Our favorite: the punk
rocker who scours Yahoo Clubs to find his own sewing circle.
BEST LINE "On the outside, Yahoo is a fun and irreverent place, but on the inside
we are extremely competitive."
FORWARD TILT Partnered with Sprint PCS to deliver the Web to cell phones,
Yahoo is poised to become a major player if and when wireless data take off.
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