Yahoo Inc said a proposed Internet-search partnership with Microsoft Corp will cover both Japan and China, where its operations are run by local partners.
Yahoo is discussing requirements for the adoption of Microsoft’s Bing search engine with its local partners, Rose Tsou (鄒開蓮), managing director for Asia at Yahoo, said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Seoul yesterday.
In July, Yahoo agreed to use the software on its Web sites and to sell ads that appear next to search results, with the two companies splitting the revenue.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴), which operates Yahoo’s portal in China, hasn’t said yet whether it will use the Bing search engine in the world’s biggest Internet market by users.
Yahoo Japan Corp, controlled by Tokyo-based Softbank Corp, operates the most-visited Web site in the world’s second-biggest economy.
“We are in a very good position to accelerate growth” in Asia, Tsou said. “In general, Asia is still performing relatively stronger when it comes to advertising.”
Advertising sales in Asia have partly helped Yahoo compensate for a slump in the US.
Yahoo last week raised HK$1.14 billion (US$147 million) from selling its stake in Hong Kong-listed Alibaba.com Ltd, in which Alibaba Group owns a 74 percent stake. The US company retains its holding in the Chinese parent. In 2005, Yahoo paid US$1 billion and swapped its Chinese operations for a 40 percent stake in the Hangzhou, China-based company.
“Yahoo is very happy with the relationship we have with Alibaba,” Tsou said.
The disposal of the Alibaba.com stake was “just a financial decision,” she said.
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