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Yahoo driven to remain No. 1 in Taiwan: Decker
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In the country as part of a tour of Asian customers and partners, new Yahoo president Susan Decker said Taiwan would remain a priority
By Jessie Ho
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Oct 25, 2007, Page 12
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"Build, buy and partner are our strategies in the Asian market."
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Susan Decker, Yahoo president
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Internet search giant Yahoo Inc will continue to provide localized products and services through innovation, acquisition and partnership to maintain its leading position in the industry, Yahoo president Susan Decker said in Taipei yesterday.
Decker took up her post in June, when Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (法璓环) replaced Terry Semel as CEO. Semel was criticized for drawing a large salary while the company's stock price declined and Yahoo lost ground to competitor Google Inc.
"Build, buy and partner are our strategies in the Asian market," Decker said.
Decker visited Taiwan as the last stop on her Asian tour of customers and partners. Before coming to Taiwan, Decker visited South Korea and Hong Kong.
The number of Internet users in the Asia Pacific has increased rapidly, making the region a significant one for companies such as Yahoo.
Estimates say there will be more than than 1.8 billion Internet users by 2010 -- up from 400 million in 2000. Asia-pacific users are expected to account for 36 percent of the total by then, up from 20 percent in 2000, Decker said.
Yahoo is a strong performer in the Asia Pacific market and globally, she said.
In Taiwan, 80 percent to 90 percent of Internet users have the Yahoo-Kimo page set as their homepage, Decker said.
Decker attributed Yahoo's success in Taiwan to the success of the Kimo portal acquired by Yahoo in February 2001 and the company's introduction of innovations such as online auctions.
Another bold move that paid off for Yahoo was the acquisition of Wretch Co (礚), then the largest photo-sharing and blog service portal in Taiwan, at the end of last year.
As in the global market, Yahoo has recently met with strong competition from Google in Taiwan, with the world's largest search engine introducing local versions of services such as Google Maps and YouTube.
The two Internet giants will soon also compete in the mobile arena. Eyeing the business potential of Taiwan's high mobile penetration rate, Yahoo-Kimo Inc (懂集), Yahoo's local arm, will ally with Taiwan Mobile Co (芖) to launch Yahoo "OneSearch," a service that will enable Taiwan Mobile subscribers to search the Internet on their mobile phones.
Google and Taiwan's largest telecom carrier, Chunghwa Telecom Co (い地筿獺), introduced Google Search early this year. The service, together with Google's Gmail, were extended to Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (环肚筿獺) users in August.
Yahoo-Kimo plans to outsource its application programming interface (API) development in the hope of delivering more innovative services. However, Charlene Hung (瑇), general manager of Yahoo-Kimo, said it would take some time to do this while simulataneously maintaining stability.
Globally, Google is the No. 1 search engine with almost 4 billion searches -- representing 54 percent of all queries conducted last month -- according to a Nielsen Online research report. Yahoo took second spot with 1.4 billion, or 19.5 percent of all searches.
After the personnel shakeup in June, Yahoo has focused on trying to close the gap to Google. The company hopes its homepage can become the most popular portal for consumers, a magnet for advertisers, and the platform that attracts the most publications and developers, Decker said.
Yahoo saw third-quarter profits decline by 5 percent to US$151 million, or US$0.11 per share, from a year ago. The result of Yang's first full quarter as CEO had exceeded Wall Street's expectations, Decker said.
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