December 28, 2007 | Friday
Google: (Not so) big in Japan - yet
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in News |Search Engines |Google |Yahoo
The last year or so has been, for the most part, a period of dismay, confusion and concern for Yahoo employees and investors. Slipping performance, the forced departure of many high level executives (including former CEO Terry Semel), and the sheer dominance of Google has made it a trying time for the search also-ran. But it turns out that the company does enjoy massive success in one very lucrative territory - and it’s one that Google has just made a big move to take away from Yahoo.
Japan is one of the few markets globally in which Yahoo is ahead of Google in search, holding 65.9% of the market in April to Google’s 27.8%. The overall gap amongst all Yahoo and Google properties however isn’t quite as wide, with Yahoo properties totaling 41 million unique visitors in August (comScore) to Google’s 31 million.
Of course, Google has no intention of letting this turf war be won by any rival of theirs. To that end, this new deal with Japan’s leading mobile operator could be huge:
Starting as early as spring, users will be able to access Google searches, email, scheduling and photo-saving features through DoCoMo’s i-mode network service, the Nikkei business daily said.
While rival KDDI has already been working with Google in search and email on its mobile phones, DoCoMo eyes deeper ties in services and technology with the U.S. firm, including development of next generation handset featuring Google’s operating system, the Nikkei said.
DoCoMo controls more than half of Japan’s mobile market, boasting more than 48 million customers, so this win is big for Google. Which also means that the loss for Yahoo could be catastrophic, especially with only Japan under its belt as an area of dominance.
This deal also hints at something we’ve been talking about on this blog for the last couple of years: The growing importance of mobile. It should come as a surprise to no one that Japan’s mobile market is so large and active; what may come as a surprise is if this is the strategic front on which Yahoo faces its most significant defeat.
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