Rakuten Opposes Yahoo Japan-Google Search Deal

[bill]

Rakuten isn't the first to ask that this deal be reviewed. Microsoft also wasn't too happy about this one either.

Rakuten Asks Antitrust Regulator to Review Yahoo Japan-Google Search Deal [bloomberg.com]

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese Internet shopping site operator, asked Japan’s Fair Trade Commission to review an Internet-search partnership between Yahoo! Japan Corp. and Google Inc., saying the deal may deter competition.

“The partnership deserves careful consideration because there is a real possibility that the industry’s overall growth could be adversely affected,” said Hirotoshi Kato, a spokesman at Tokyo-based Rakuten.

[bill]

Yahoo Japan doesn't seem too concerned about the anti-trust review suggested by Rakuten.

Yahoo Japan chief says tie-up work with Google proceeding smoothly [mdn.mainichi.jp]

Yahoo Japan Corp. President Masahiro Inoue said Friday that preparations are proceeding smoothly for his company to strike an alliance with Google Inc. of the United States in the area of Internet searches and online advertisement, although their rivals have voiced antitrust concerns.

"We will complete (the introduction of Google's Internet search engine) by the end of this year as scheduled," Inoue told reporters.

His comments came after Japanese online shopping mall operator Rakuten Inc. said earlier this week that it had filed a complaint with the antimonopoly watchdog that Yahoo Japan's plan to tie up with Google would hinder fair competition in Japan's Internet market.

[bill]

This is being reported on again today.

Rakuten Says Google-Yahoo Japan Tie-Up Is ‘Dangerous’ [bloomberg.com]

Rakuten Inc., the Japanese Internet shopping site operator, said a local web-search partnership between Yahoo! Japan Corp. and Google Inc. will have “superpowers,” making it “dangerous” for fair competition.

...

If the companies were to change the search results to favor their products, “they will have superpowers,” Rakuten President Hiroshi Mikitani said at a briefing on the company’s earnings in Tokyo today. “I think it’s very dangerous.”

[Olney]

They may oppose it but after looking at Y!J situation what choice did they have?
It's the same for Korea also. Perhaps the organic search technology of Bing may be made good enough for both Japan & Korea but the Paid Search Platform Microsoft Ad Center isn't used in either country. It had to be a really tough decision but going from resolving years of problems with Panama Platform to a brand new Platform not used in Asia wouldn't be a good business decision.

I expect Yahoo Japan to create their own & dump third party technology in a few years anyway. This is only a temp solution for them.

[bill]

I expect Yahoo Japan to create their own & dump third party technology in a few years anyway.

You mean an ad platform? Didn't they already internalize Overture Japan [webmasterworld.com] last year?

[Olney]

You mean an ad platform? Didn't they already internalize Overture Japan [webmasterworld.com] last year?

That was internalizing the company Overture. The Ad Platform (Panama)was licensed to them from Yahoo US. Instead they started building their own platforms to compliment it though.

Yahoo Interest Match (Yahoo's content network)
Mobile Search Platform for Yahoo was built in Japan.

With the Panama technology owned by Yahoo US there would be US maintenance that would affect us during our day, or the fact that the daily spend timing is set to US time (not Japan time).

There's also was many features & reporting tools that we could benefit from here in Japan like dayparting that just was never added to Japan's Panama Platform. If the technology was Japan based they could fix it. But it's controlled by the US. That's why they dumped it.

[bill]

That makes a lot of sense then. Thanks for sharing that insight!

[Olney]

No problem I realize that there's not a lot of nonJapanese that are in SEM in Japan at the Ad Agency level. Tomorrow Yahoo has it's Agency Forum & I'm usually the only foreigner there(for paid search).