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Yahoo is looking to get more fashionable.
The Internet giant announced on Friday that it’s buying the social-shopping site Polyvore for an undisclosed price, as Yahoo tries to build out its digital content and advertising business. The site lets people put together sets of clothes and accessories, which are also available for purchase.
Yahoo has been trying to attract more eyeballs to its services — including its Mail, Weather and Sports properties — in an attempt to revitalize flagging revenue. The company said Yahoo will power Polyvore’s native advertisements — or ads that look and feel more like editorial content instead of being cordoned off. Yahoo will also lean on Polyvore’s relationship with advertisers and retailers, the company said.
“The combination of Yahoo’s industry-leading digital content with Polyvore’s expertise in community and commerce has outstanding potential,” Simon Khalaf, a Yahoo senior vice president of product and engineering, said in a statement.
Since CEO Marissa Mayer took over at Yahoo three years ago, she’s gone on an acquisition spree, buying more than 50 companies for over $2 billion combined to build up Yahoo’s mobile-engineering staff. The company has good reason for the buying binge. Sales from Yahoo’s traditional moneymaker — display, or banner, ads that run on desktop websites — continues to fade. To combat that loss in business, Mayer has been focused on mobile, social, video and native ads instead.
Yahoo last year launched a handful of lifestyle Web pages it calls digital magazines, covering topics including tech, health, style and politics. The Polyvore deal could bring the service’s e-commerce offerings to the Internet giant’s digital magazines, particularly its Yahoo Style.
Khalaf noted the deal would “transform the user experience across our digital magazines” and coverage areas.
