Internet media giant Yahoo!, under pressure to develop new sources of revenue, yesterday said it is offering a broad selection of adult material, including hard-core porn videos and DVDs, through its popular shopping service.
The company declined to confirm it had dramatically increased its porn offerings in recent weeks but did say it was comfortable offering racy adult materials to help build its overall commerce business.
The Los Angeles Timesreported yesterday that Yahoo! had quietly relaunched its Adult and Erotica store and added thousands of new titles.
Yahoo! president Mr Jeff Mallett defended the company's decision to include a broad selection of porn along with offerings such as computers, apparel and children's toys that are also featured on Yahoo! Shopping.
"We're hard and fast on being the largest enabler of commerce on the Web," said Mr Mallett. "We have chosen to offer adult-oriented content as part of that."
Yahoo! said it is trying to keep children off the adult-material part of its site. Visitors can not access the Adult and Erotica store on Yahoo! until they enter a credit card number and other personal information.