Yahoo India to boost freelance pay model

Internet giant Yahoo plans to give a boost in India to its service that pays freelance writers and contributors and also focus on regional languages as it moves to expand and deepen its content that helps attract advertisement revenue.

Internet giant Yahoo plans to give a boost in India to its service that pays freelance writers and contributors and also focus on regional languages as it moves to expand and deepen its content that helps attract advertisement revenue.

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Writing, especially on the Internet, is often a labour or passion or love for contributors who often do not get their financial due. Yahoo is now out to boost them with the help of Associated Content.

The service is already in place in the US since last year after Yahoo acquired Associated Content, which acts as a content marketplace. Shouvick Mukherjee, CEO of Yahoo!’s research and development unit in India said in India, the company has plans to launch at least six local language sites.

“We are particularly interested in having Indian language content, and within that context Associated Content model becomes very critical. We are working on the plans but it will be premature to share any timeline,” he said.

Yahoo! was once a leader in Internet search but the arrival of Google took away that crown. But thanks to its aggregation services and content partnerships, Yahoo! remains a leader in banner advertisements.

The Associated Content team and its contributors complement Yahoo’s own editorial team in creating content meaningful for users and that opens up avenues for advertisers, Mukherjee said.

The writers’ earnings are linked to the revenue generated through advertising on their content.

The Associated Content platform is now called Yahoo Contributor Network. Mukherjee said India has a strong culture of independent contributors but their writings cannot be easily monetised and an economic model was necessary to generate a true content marketplace.

“India needs a model such as this. There will be improvement in availability of local content, better topic diversity, and in the language that people want to consume it. Superior content will be in demand, while not so great content will witness a natural decay,” Mukherjee said.