Yahoo Japan is taking a radically different approach to the rest of the company, as the Japanese branch has confirmed it will be using Google to power both paid and organic search.
Microsoft and Yahoo’s “Search Alliance” has the search engine marketing world preparing for a combined approach to search outside Google, as Bing will soon power PPC and organic results for both companies. Yet Kara Swisher of Boomtown reported just hours before the official announcement that Yahoo Japan will be going with Google search over Bing as it phases out its own technology, choosing AdWords over AdCentre.
Whilst this may seem perplexing, Yahoo Japan is not in fact a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company which bears its name. Instead Yahoo! only holds a 35% share in the company, with the majority (40%) held by Japanese company SoftBank Corp.
This meant that when Yahoo and Microsoft entered into a partnership last year, Yahoo Japan was free to choose any other search provider to replace its algorithmic search technology.
The new arrangement will effectively combine Google and Yahoo Japan’s share of the huge Japanese search market, which is one of the few locations where Google does not hold a dominant position. Comscore reports from 2009 put Yahoo’s share at 51.3% of all searches and Google’s at 38.2%; according to Swisher, a more recent report places the figures at 53% and 38% respectively.
Although figures differ the broad details are the same; together, Yahoo and Google will form the kind of dominant market share that Google enjoys in the UK and the US. This is unlikely to be welcomed by Microsoft, who has recently launched Bing in Japan and has a comparatively tiny 3% share.
A statement from Yahoo on Yahoo Japan’s decision said that the company had “amended our agreement with Yahoo! Japan as a result of this decision” though they “do not anticipate that this amendment will have a material financial impact on our revenues.”
“This decision by Yahoo! Japan does not impact the global rollout and implementation of the Yahoo! search alliance with Microsoft, except in the Japanese market.”
Related posts:
