Published by Motoko on 08 Dec 2009
I just posted my presentation about the Search in Japan from International Search Summit in London last month.
As you can see, my presentation shows bunch of numbers, which don’t mean much to you unless you were in the audience. Here’s what I talked about.
Market:
94 million Internet users
75.3% Penetration rate
4% access Internet from TV and gaming devices
73.4% on Broad Band
90% of Continue Reading »
Published by Motoko on 15 Sep 2009
Yahoo Japan added a new function to its keyword assist, which will automatically convert Roma-ji typed word into Japanese characters (Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, see below.) as the searchers type. This could change your target keywords since many searchers tend to pick a word/phrase from a list to get the search results rather than to complete typing their original search query. (Note: When typing Japanese characters, many of us type the words in Roma-ji format using Roman letter alphabet, then select the desired format (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, or in many cases mix of 2 or more styles) from a list of words that have the desired character combination. I know, it’s time consuming to say the least.)
New Yahoo Japan Keyword Assist
The keyword assist function was added to Yahoo search box to help searchers narrow the search results by providing a list of popular search queries including the word/phrase typed in the search box. (See below.) Continue Reading »
Published by Motoko on 28 Aug 2009
Yahoo Japan announced today that Overture Japan will operate under Yahoo Japan brand starting October 1, 2009. Overture is currently a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan, providing the PPC services for PC and mobile for Japanese search market.
This may be a way to strengthen Yahoo’s online advertising services, which currently provides display ads, text ads, e-mail ads and affiliate programs. By bringing in Overture’s PPC services into Yahoo advertising service plan, they will be able to provide the total online advertising services to its customers. Continue Reading »
Published by Motoko on 19 Aug 2009
Since the announcement of bing-Yahoo deal in US, Softbank president has made a comment that he welcomed the deal, and there was a high possibility for Yahoo Japan to incorporate bing search, too. While the detail is still need to be discussed between the two search giants, his public comment can be viewed as a “GO” sign for the deal in Japan. (Softbank is the biggest share holder of Yahoo Japan.)
Personally, I think bing and Yahoo Japan are even a better match than US counterparts, and here’s why:
Yahoo Japan would keep its popular brand that has been known as a face of search in Japan. This will prevent from losing search users for not being familiar with bing search. Many search users simply search using Yahoo tool bar, and it’ll probably take a while for many (average) search users to notice that it’s powered by bing. Continue Reading »
