 |
 |
 |
 |
| Robbie Hills CEO, search marketing, GroupM |
Laker Chen President, search, SinoTech Group |
Sean Seah General manager, Zuji |
Philip Beck CEO, Meijob International Holdings |
NO |
NO |
NO |
YES |
| “I am sure that we will not see Yahoo China rise up any time soon. Alibaba seems to have zero interest in maintaining and developing the Yahoo brand as it would seem to drive against its own strategic direction. However, China is a major market for all global digital publishers and, to be successful, you must have a presence in search, display, mobile, video and social in China. I have no doubt that at some time in the future Yahoo will look to resurrect itself in China. If it wants to be a major player in the growth of digital in Asia it has no choice but to ensure it has a physical brand presence there. The Yahoo brand is very strong in North Asia. Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan are all Yahoo-dominated markets. China is the missing piece and I imagine that, once the Microsoft search deal has been signed and sealed and its implementation is underway, we may see the Yahoo team in Sunnyvale look to solve their lack of presence in China. They need to. |
“Yahoo China did a great job in 2004 after Yahoo acquired the local company 3721. In 2005, Yahoo gave control to Alibaba in exchange for a 39 per cent stake in Alibaba Group. Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba Group, launched a series of public events to reinforce the Yahoo China brand. The idea was clear, but ill-timed. In search, Baidu and Google China control nearly 80 per cent of the market. Yahoo China may have a brilliant future but not in its original guise. Its chances of getting back in the general search engine battle as an important player are slim. What Alibaba could do in the future is refocus Yahoo’s assets to places where they would be more effective. However, so far, its strategy is not clear.” |
“You cannot claim to be a global internet company and ignore the world’s largest community of internet users. On that rationale alone, Yahoo will always have a presence in China. However, it will be a massive challenge for Yahoo to be the dominant search engine and internet portal in China. Alibaba purchased Yahoo China for its search technology but also for its potential as a competitor to entrenched portals such as Sina and Sohu. Alibaba’s repeated attempts to retool Yahoo China are a clear indication that any original strategy to compete in search and portals is not working out. China’s search market continues to be dominated by Baidu and Google, and Yahoo China has barely made a dent in the local portals’ stranglehold on market share. The shift of [classified listings service] Koubei.com from Yahoo to Taobao.com is another nail in the coffin, a tacit admission that Alibaba is de-emphasising Yahoo by shifting resources away. The new strategy to position Yahoo as an entertainment portal is just another attempt to seek purpose for the brand. It is not clear how this move will differentiate Yahoo.” |
“Yahoo’s future in China is grim. It has completely failed to put any stakes in the ground on important, and predictable, trends: e-commerce, search, ad networks, as well as social networking and all web 2.0 functionality. It could have imported successful things from the US, like email weather and finance. It lacks any compelling offering like games, real estate or jobs. It might have had a legitimate shot at online video until two years ago, but that takes lots of investment and Alibaba had already bet the farm on Taobao. It seems that Yahoo is not top-of-mind for Alibaba. Yahoo for a while was still feasible (but a distant number three) for search, but for the past three years has been on a steep downward slide. The last of the good people in Yahoo’s search function left two years ago. Why Yahoo gave up its investment in China, a market that was set to become the largest internet market in the world and by 2014 will be larger than the top 30 countries in the world combined, is beyond me. Bottom-line, Yahoo has made a mess and Alibaba is doing its best to clean it up.” |
Got a view?
Email Feedback@media.asia
This article was originally published in 24 September 2009 issue of Media.
