Yahoo! Inc., owner of the second most used Internet search engine, bought a Web site that helps individuals and sponsor companies host online talent shows to add more content created by users.
Bix, founded in January, holds online contests for karaoke, dance, comedy, beauty, photography and writing, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said today on its Web site. People compete by posting photos, audio and videos, which other users rate.
Yahoo has sought to attract visitors by adding features for do-it-yourself content that compete with sites such as YouTube and MySpace. At YouTube users can post their own videos and anyone can watch them, with as many as 100 million clips viewed a day. Yahoo also bought online video site Jumpcut in September.
Bix has 16 employees and is based in Palo Alto, California. Bix founder Mike Speiser, who also co-founded product review site Epinions.com, will join Yahoo as a vice president, overseeing photos, message boards, Yahoo’s 360 social networking site, and Bix. Terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed.
“We’re currently looking into possible synergies with things like Yahoo Groups, Yahoo Messenger, Yahoo Video and our entertainment properties,” Bradley Horowitz, Yahoo’s vice president of product strategy, said in a posting on Yahoo’s Web site.
Shares of Yahoo rose 9 cents to $26.73 at 12:01 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They had fallen 32 percent this year before today.
