"We were certainly not sophisticated or civilized," Yang joked during an interview with The Associated Press ahead of tomorrow's anniversary of Yahoo's inception.

What separated Yahoo's creators from the rest of the dot-com crowd was their desire to create a profitable business as quickly as possible — a contrarian concept back in those days of economic delirium.

The philosophy enabled Yahoo to begin making money in less than 10 months, and also fueled the Sunnyvale-based company's resounding comeback from the dot-com bust that obliterated hundreds of other Internet businesses.

"We have always built the company around profitability," Yang said. "When we're not profitable, it's terrible."

The partners discovered early on that being frugal isn't necessarily boring. One reason Yahoo's offices have always been painted in vibrant purple-and-yellow is because they were the cheapest colors available.

Yang, 36, and Filo, 38, became billionaires long ago, but they have stuck around as the "Chief Yahoos" at the Sunnyvale-based company because they are eager to continue innovating and increasing profits.

Yahoo has grown from a handful of employees to more than 7,600 workers today, but Moore said the company's "work hard, play hard" culture has remained intact. In between the long hours required to run the world's most popular Web destination, Yahoo's employees unwind by playing basketball, volleyball, bocce ball and even dodgeball at the corporate campus.

There's a similar ethic going on a few miles to the north at Google Inc., a fierce rival that Yang and Filo helped inspire. But Yahoo doesn't pamper its workers as extravagantly as Google, which feeds its employees breakfast, lunch and dinner and even arranges to have their oil changed for free.

Yahoo's profit-conscious approach has paid off handsomely, particularly for its founders. Filo still owns 6.4 percent of Yahoo's stock — a stake worth $2.8 billion. Having sold more of his holdings through the years, Yang owns a 4.8 percent stake worth $2.1 billion.

Yahoo already has amassed an audience of 345 million, including 165 million registered users who rely on the company's Web sites for e-mail, e-commerce, news, entertainment, driving directions, matchmaking, weather forecasts, job leads and search results.

The company believes it can become an even more vital information and entertainment hub as wireless and broadband technology changes how people interact with media, but Yahoo's leadership on the Internet isn't necessarily secure.

Google, which got $10 million in early financing from Yahoo, looms as a formidable threat, and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL have also ramped up their Web portals.

Yang and Filo are used to skeptics — they've been shadowed by doubters ever since they began compiling a list of their favorite Web sites while procrastinating on their electrical engineering graduate work at Stanford University.

The company has had its ups and down. Its market value shrank to $4.6 billion at one point, prompting a change of chief executives.