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The local unit of Internet portal giant Yahoo has continued to lose strength in the search engine market, according to a survey.
It sounds as though a portal called NHN in Korea has overtaken Yahoo...and Daum is in third. Is NHN the owner of Naver? It's interesting that the Alexa rankings don't seem to reflect this survey's ranking.
Anyway, from what I understand, Naver is increasing in SEARCH popularity, as is google in fact, but as a portal Yahoo and Daum still beat Naver out for actual visitors (consistent with Alexa and Rankey).
sooo I frankly question whether the reporter even knows what he is really talking about. Naver and Daum top the Korea stock market....maybe he was reading into that or something.
Are Ranky the KBS outfit that are targeting the school student study portal advertizers?
``Since last March, the page views of Yahoo’s Korean unit has slid, reflecting the company’s backwardness in the online search market,’’ the survey said.
I saw that article. I think I should go over to this guys office and give him a smack upside the head.
Though at least the contents weren't simply straight-up erroneous like that last one.
Interestingly, Navr IS the standard or more popular search engine (nevermind the portal stuff). Why? A quick survey of my friends et al give the conclusion that, simply: the quality is better.
BUT....interestingly ....its hard to say whether they are the most popular search because of WEB SEARCH. Korea (from what I see) leads the way in different types of search. There are tons of search options, and most ppl use the "ALL search" function, where you get a slue of results (from sponsored links to image search) all on the same results page. Korean web page style is VERY busy, so they actually like or dont' mind the pot luck mix. Note, WEB results are wwwaaaaaaaayyyy down the page.
The most popular type (or most highly regarded) search is actually Nav's QUESTION BASED SEARCH, not really web search, per se (ie, How do I defrag my harddrive? not unlike Askdotcom, but much much better in results). So its not really fair to compare one-to-one in search with Yahoo because you really don't know what kind of search they are talking about. AND if yahoo is slipping...its cuase it does NOT offer the range of search that the other korean born engines do.
Its also another reason, I think, why Koreans aren't too big on Google.
Actually, I wish it would be useful to post a recent article (in korean) that just straight copied (summarized?) the recent Wall Street Journal special report on SEM. Its one thing to copy...its another thing to get it WRONG. The article confused the search engine market for the search engine ADVERTISING market. For example, SEO basically came to mean an "optimized search engine".
shheesh. I know I know...forgive them Father for they know not what they do. LOL. :P
it may be useful to note:
1. again that the search results for Yahoo Kor are served by a LOCAL korean company, Softwise (unusual for Yahoo actually). Which give little support to the argument to "company backwardness" (give me a break).
2. And that yahoo's OVERALL slip MAY (repeat MAAAAY) be from a general refusal or inflexibility from being a global entity (or perhaps arrogance?) to truly customize the feel/usability to specific Korean needs and tastes. (ie: sit in office in the US and "just let those guys in Korea know every once in a while what the new Yahoo upgrade will look like").
As one of the most sophisticated, nationistic and well..."emotional" (think: demostrations, strikes and world cup) markets in the world...this could be grave mistake in the long run for continued success in Korea (as a destinationa site.)
I am interested to see how or if this effects OV KOR long run performance vs. local companies like Zingu.com.
