Ask Jeeves enters Japanese Market

[Warren]

Posted the article in the Jeeves section ( [webmasterworld.com...] ) but thought it might be more relevant here.

[bill]

Actually Ask Jeeves has been in the Japanese market since at least 2000 through their joint venture with Trans Cosmos. Here's a thread from last year: Ask Jeeves Japan [webmasterworld.com].

If memory serves, they've always had some sort of beta search up, but this looks much more substantial. I'm glad they finally look like they're serious about the general search market in Japan.

[bill]

I came across an article today that gave a bit more info about Ask Jeeves Japan:

article [dmnews.com]

Ask Jeeves Japan expects Ask.jp will officially launch in the first quarter of 2005, when it will add paid listings.

Ask Jeeves Japan has not decided on a paid search partner

So we may see AdWords from Google Japan, but AJ Japan is open to work with another partner. This might be an opening for LISTOP [webmasterworld.com], the new Japanese PPC venture formed by the FindWhat & Mitsui tie-up. I guess we'll have to wait a bit to find out though.

[Warren]

Bill

Good find. I agree that AJ may look outside their traditional paid search partner for the Japanese market.

It would not be the first time that different AJ geographical markets are serviced by a different paid search provider. Wasn't the UK done by Espotting until about this time last year?