Living in Japan, it's not that surprising. Until a few years ago Yahoo had far superior services in Japan for things such as transit directions. I remember 5 years ago trying to get around Tokyo using Google Maps with no success, but the Yahoo counterpart worked perfectly despite being harder for me to use since the UI was in Japanese only. These days, Google has equal or better services (although Yahoo still has some services Google does not provide such as an auction house). But inertia keeps people on Yahoo and Yahoo Japan is still very good, also they have close deals with Softbank (mobile phone carrier) which helps them keeping people on their sites.
I wonder how Google missed that market - is that something Yahoo does better? That is, does Yahoo have better regional offices to take the local market? I know Google often drags their feet about going international with some products.
Yahoo came into Japan by selling part of them to Softbank (Son Masayoshi). This led them to be a separate entity to Yahoo Global. E.g. if you try to find a job in Yahoo Global you will not find jobs listed in Japan and vice versa.
Google came in thinking that they can implement US/Western practices which allowed them to be successful overseas. This unfortunately does not work.
Japan's market is very unique and very self sustaining. Due to the population and the way the people behave. For example Yahoo Auctions is still the number 1 auction website in the world whereas Ebay has never penetrated the market. And Ebay also has moved into the form of a marketplace over the last few years. Yahoo Auctions has largely not changed over the years.
Yahoo! Japan is it's own company that only focuses on the Japanese market. As far as I know Google does not have a setup like this. Yahoo! Japan is owned mostly by Softbank and Yahoo! (see other comment).
Wasn't Yahoo! Japan also a large ISP or major ISP partner? Concerning a canceled move many years ago, my limited searching found Yahoo branded internet was very prevalent and a darn good deal.
Comments
Living in Japan, it's not that surprising. Until a few years ago Yahoo had far superior services in Japan for things such as transit directions. I remember 5 years ago trying to get around Tokyo using Google Maps with no success, but the Yahoo counterpart worked perfectly despite being harder for me to use since the UI was in Japanese only. These days, Google has equal or better services (although Yahoo still has some services Google does not provide such as an auction house). But inertia keeps people on Yahoo and Yahoo Japan is still very good, also they have close deals with Softbank (mobile phone carrier) which helps them keeping people on their sites.
I wonder how Google missed that market - is that something Yahoo does better? That is, does Yahoo have better regional offices to take the local market? I know Google often drags their feet about going international with some products.
Yahoo came into Japan by selling part of them to Softbank (Son Masayoshi). This led them to be a separate entity to Yahoo Global. E.g. if you try to find a job in Yahoo Global you will not find jobs listed in Japan and vice versa.
Google came in thinking that they can implement US/Western practices which allowed them to be successful overseas. This unfortunately does not work.
Japan's market is very unique and very self sustaining. Due to the population and the way the people behave. For example Yahoo Auctions is still the number 1 auction website in the world whereas Ebay has never penetrated the market. And Ebay also has moved into the form of a marketplace over the last few years. Yahoo Auctions has largely not changed over the years.
Yahoo! Japan is it's own company that only focuses on the Japanese market. As far as I know Google does not have a setup like this. Yahoo! Japan is owned mostly by Softbank and Yahoo! (see other comment).
Wasn't Yahoo! Japan also a large ISP or major ISP partner? Concerning a canceled move many years ago, my limited searching found Yahoo branded internet was very prevalent and a darn good deal.