Google in Japan

[keikei]

As most people visiting this forum know, Google is dominating the Japanese search engine market... Supposedly it now consists of over 70% of all searches in Japan (the rest is, mostly, Yahoo! Japan's directory search).

As a SEO professional in Japan, I happen to have lots of questions regarding HOW Google's search algorithm works to analyze Japanese keywords.

What I've wondering lately is whether Google DOES use a particular algorithm to analyze Japanese keywords differently from English keywords.

For instance, does it give a higher score for Japanese-character domain name when searched in the same Japanese character keywords?! (My answer is No but I'm curious since I don't have enough data)

So far I'm founding no specific algorithm for Japanese keywords.. which gives me a different approach to optimize Japanese sites (I'm a former English-based site SEO pro!)

Any input is appreciated here.

[bill]

Google is dominating the Japanese search engine market... Supposedly it now consists of over 70% of all searches in Japan

It's easy to believe that Google reaches that much of the market. However, I always wondered how LookSmart can also claim a 70% market share [submitasite.jp.btlooksmart.com] for the Japanese internet. ;)

For instance, does it give a higher score for Japanese-character domain name when searched in the same Japanese character keywords?!

I doubt it as well. I think you'd have more luck if you considered Page Rank a more important factor. Those old SEO tricks don't seem to work as well with Google ;) You're better off not trying to overload keywords too much for Google ranking.

[Brett_Tabke]

keikei, welcome to the forums. Very interesting discussion. I think it applies not only to Japan, but other unicode languages as well.

[keikei]

Thanx Brett. In fact I've been reviewing your posts lately and gave me lots of insight again!

I agree my question applies to other languages as well.

I'm curious of this since there are lots of rooms for Google or any other engines to enhance its query-processing algorythm particular to Japanese language (or others..I'm just refering to Japanese language since that's the only one I do understand aside from English :) )

There have been some Japanese-born search engines who tried to beat English-based engines, like NTT's Goo, Infoseek Japan and many others, using their claiming "Japanese-specific-word-analyzing-technology". However I'm seeing not much success so far. After all Google still seems to be the easiest to use and give the best result.

The similar situation happened when Microsoft came to Japan and spread WORD beating those Japanese-based wordprocessing software... Well Microsoft had enough money to recruit those best talents from their Japanese competitors and of course they had Windows. Google might not be in such a dominating position and I wonder how Japan's search engine scene goes...

[keikei]

Adwords is coming to Japan!!

[google.com...]

I guess they've decided to take over the market with PPC service as well, before Overture tries to snap it.

This is going to be quite interesting... :)

[Woz]

Great find KeiKei,

As most of us here don't read Japanese, could you do a short summary of what they are saying please? Also, did you see the discussion we had on Payed Listings in Asia [webmasterworld.com] a while ago? This will certainly have some impact on the situation.

Onya
Woz

[fixed url!]

(edited by: Woz at 1:14 pm (utc) on April 16, 2002)

[bill]

Basically they're advertising for 2 positions: AdWords Select Service Operations Manager & AdWords Select Service Operations Coordinator. They talk about building up a customer service team to support AdWords in Japan. The rest of it is standard job description qualification listing info.

I just hope they get this going soon ;)

[Woz]

Thanks Bill. That would certainly stir the pot up quite a bit.

I think I am correct in saying that this would be the first regionally focused PPC system in the Asia-Pacific region, There are other payed listing or spidering opportunities but these, with the exception of Yahoo Japan, are global systems and would rely on very tightly focussed tareget words to get regional results.

G/J Adwords on the other hand, I am assuming, would only appear on G/J specifically for the Japanese Market. Interesting

Onya
Woz

[bill]

...first regionally focused PPC system in the Asia-Pacific region

Right now it's a race between Google, LookSmart & Overture to see who will release the first PPC for Japan. Google and LookSmart have a big head start on Overture in terms of market share & position, so it will be very interesting to see how this all shakes out.

It will also be interesting to see how the market takes to this. There really aren't many SEO types in Japan, and awareness of the value of SE marketing is low...however, the online ad industry here seems more healthy than the US or Europe. I could see something like AdWords really take off on the strength of Google's name alone.

[keikei]

I could see something like AdWords really take off on the strength of Google's name alone.

This is what's likely to happen in my opinion. I agree SEO / SE marketing are still unknown in Japan. Google brand itself can win it all if they market it properly. I won't be surprised if many budgeted JP sites choose Adwords over SEO which is time-comsuming and involves more work.

Overture only has a way to survive if they can hit a big portal partner initially and get a decent number of advertisers enough to sell its top search result to other portals on top of Google, like many US portal do.

Then here comes the battle with Looksmart Japan who is already doing that. On the other hand Looksmart Japan seems to have some weakness on its management side (at least in the last *** months).

I guess it really depends whether Overture Japan can hire good talents or not. Let's see what they can do in the next 6 months.

[bill]

I won't be surprised if many budgeted JP sites choose Adwords over SEO which is time-comsuming and involves more work.

Good point keikei. Another factor is time...AdWords and other PPC is nearly instant, while traditional SEO can take months to produce results. SEO is going to be an even tougher sell in Japan, huh? :(

I guess it really depends whether Overture Japan can hire good talents or not.

If I remember the original job postings correctly, weren't they looking for a number of Japanese bilingual people in California as well as Tokyo? I wonder how much of their operation will actually be in Japan. That could be a factor in terms of customer service, which will be critical in the early days, especially for an unknown like Overture.

[Woz]

>Japanese bilingual people in California as well as Tokyo?

I wonder then whether they are looking at targeting both Internal Japanese clients and also the Overseas market looking to sell into Japan. I know the two markets are a given but I wonder how much Google are conciously aiming at the external market.

Guys, in your travels on the various Japanese Search Engines, what would be your estimation of the ratio of content from inside Japan to outside Japan?

Onya
WOz

[bill]

I wonder then whether they are looking at targeting both Internal Japanese clients and also the Overseas market looking to sell into Japan.

I looked at this as more in terms of convenience for Overture. They just wanted to develop everything in-house and then export the whole thing to Japan. This has a number of benefits, particularly it skips the step of doing development in Japan, which can be frustrating for foreign companies. There is a huge business/culture gap that they'd face in Japan, and I think they may have wanted to sidestep that for as long as they could.

On the other hand I have seen Google do the same thing...I was member of a Japanese cell-phone developer's list and watched Google come in during the development of their iMode Japanese search engine, which is brilliant by the way, got feedback from all the top players and then just made the system and translated everything into Japanese. They never had to come to Japan to test anything.

The AdWords job descriptions are looking for people in Tokyo. They aren't bothering with posting English ads on an English site looking for Japanese speaking staff. That alone shows a big difference in corporate cultures. Google is going to the source in the source language, while Overture is still hoping to get bilinguals so that they can still work in English... I may be completely off on this, but I get the impression that Google is approaching this in a way that is more forward-thinking. Overture grabs me as the McDonalds/Starbucks approach. Build a cookie cutter version of their US service and drop it in Japan...I'm starting to get the feeling this isn't going to work as well for them as they had hoped.

what would be your estimation of the ratio of content from inside Japan to outside Japan?

That could be a whole separate thread ;)
It's hard to say for a few reasons. If you look at the history of the Japanese www, then you'll know that until very recently Japan specific domain names were prohibitively difficult to buy and setup. The cheaper and more easily accessible .com, .net, .org names became the norm for a lot of Japanese sites. So, to begin with we see a lot of Japanese content scattered about 'outside' Japan already.

I think what you're asking here Woz is whether there are a lot of non-Japanese companies targeting the Japanese markets. While there certainly a lot more lately, I'd say the vast majority is still Japanese content created in Japan.