Speaking to investors at a conference sponsored by Morgan Stanley yesterday, Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Terry Semel said its usage and user-numbers rose "dramatically" in 2002, with the fastest growth
seen among those users apt to spend the most money on Yahoo services. At the end of Q3 2002, Yahoo had attracted 201 million unique users to its site, up 14% from the Q3 2001. Yahoo also said it had
1.55 million paying customers at the end of September, nearly seven times the previous year's level. Semel provided no other stats in advance of the company's upcoming earnings release, and declined
to comment on how Yahoo's purchase of Inktomi Corp. last week will affect its relationships with Google Inc., which provides Yahoo with some back-end search technology, or Overture Services Inc.,
which provides it with paid listings for search pages. Semel said Yahoo's relationship with both companies is "good," and that "search is a fundamental component of Yahoo."
