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Yahoo Japan

From Alfawiki
Yahoo! Japan Corporation
Company typePublic (until 2023)
IndustryInternet services, web portal
FoundedJanuary 1996; 30 years ago (1996-01)
FounderSoftBank, Yahoo! Inc.
FateManagement transferred to LY Corporation in 2023
Headquarters
Tokyo
,
Japan
Area served
Japan
Key people
Ken Miyauchi (CEO of Ymobile subsidiary)
ProductsWeb portal, search engine, online auction, email service, loyalty program, paid membership services
OwnerSoftBank Group (originally), LY Corporation (since 2023)
Websitewww.yahoo.co.jp

Yahoo! Japan (ヤフー, Yafū) serves as a prominent Japanese web portal and has ranked as the most frequented website within Japan, also placing among the top 50 websites worldwide. Established through a collaboration between SoftBank (currently SoftBank Group) and Yahoo! Inc., it has operated under the management of Yahoo! Japan Corporation from 1996 until 2023, and subsequently under LY Corporation starting in 2023.

Although highly popular, Yahoo! Japan has consistently lagged behind Google in terms of search engine market share, capturing 19% as of July 2021 compared to Google's dominant 77%. Originally modeled as a directory-style search engine akin to the U.S. Yahoo!, it fully transitioned to a crawler-based search system after October 3, 2005. The longstanding directory service known as "Yahoo! Category" was terminated on March 29, 2018.

Initially, Yahoo! Japan’s crawler search utilized Goo’s technology, which itself was based on Google’s platform, before switching to Yahoo Search Technology (YST) developed in the United States. The company expanded its search functionalities through collaborations, integrating real-time Twitter search and incorporating data from partners such as Cookpad and Naver. The Yahoo! Search Custom Search service was discontinued on March 31, 2019.

History

Yahoo! Japan was launched in January 1996 by Yahoo! and SoftBank with the objective of creating Japan’s inaugural web portal, officially going live on April 1, 1996. The firm went public on the JASDAQ in November 1997 and achieved a milestone in January 2000 when its stock price surpassed ¥100 million per share for the first time in Japan. It transferred its listing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2003 and became part of the Nikkei 225 index in 2005.

In 2005, Yahoo! Japan secured naming rights for the Fukuoka Yahuoku! Dome, renaming it to "Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome," which serves as the home stadium for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, a professional baseball team primarily owned by SoftBank.

From 2010 onward, Yahoo! Japan’s search engine has been powered by Google’s technology through an exchange of user activity data between their respective services.

In 2017, Verizon Communications purchased Yahoo’s core internet assets for approximately $4.83 billion, merging them with AOL to establish Oath (later Verizon Media). This transaction excluded Yahoo's holdings in Alibaba Group, Yahoo Japan, and other investments; these remained under the publicly traded investment company formerly known as Yahoo and later renamed Altaba. Meanwhile, Yahoo Japan continued operations independently under its own brand.

This acquisition marked the conclusion of Yahoo’s independent business after more than twenty years; however, Yahoo Japan preserved its distinct branding and operational independence separate from Verizon’s United States operations.

Since April 2022, regulatory challenges have led to the discontinuation of Yahoo Japan services within the European Economic Area and United Kingdom.

With its current partnership with Google scheduled to end in 2025, Yahoo Japan is exploring adopting search engine technology developed by South Korea’s Naver.

Design

Yahoo! Japan has maintained a website design closely resembling the international Yahoo layout prior to 2007, including retaining the red Yahoo logo that was used globally before its update in 2013. This consistent design approach sets it apart from changes seen in the international Yahoo brand.

Services

Yahoo! Japan provides a variety of digital services and applications tailored specifically for the Japanese audience, including:

  • Ymobile: Operating as a SoftBank Group Corporation subsidiary, Y!mobile delivers mobile communication and ADSL offerings. Established in 2014 through the integration of Willcom and eAccess, it utilizes the Yahoo! Japan Y! brand identity. The company is led by CEO Ken Miyauchi.
  • Yahoo! Japan Mail: Functioning separately from the global Yahoo! Mail platform, it features a traditional user interface and offers 10 GB of storage, which is more limited compared to the international Yahoo! Mail’s capacity.
  • : Recognized as Japan's foremost online auction service, previously known as Yahoo! Auction and Yafuoku.
  • Yahoo! Japan T-Point: A customer loyalty program that allows users to accumulate and spend points on purchases or redeem them for cash.
  • Yahoo! Premium: A paid membership program that grants perks such as exclusive bidding privileges in auctions and enhanced functionalities through Yahoo! Wallet, compatible with prominent Japanese financial institutions including Japan Net Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, and Rakuten Bank.

Other services historically available have included Yahoo! Japan Bookstore, News, GeoCities (terminated in 2019), Toto (sports lottery), GyaO (video streaming service discontinued in 2023), Shopping, Travel, Roko (mapping and review platform), Box (cloud storage), Mobage (social networking), Wisdom Bag (Q&A platform), and an Android-based Yahoo! Browser.

From April 6, 2022 onward, users located within the European Economic Area and United Kingdom have been restricted from accessing the homepage due to GDPR regulations. Nonetheless, certain affiliated services such as Yahoo! JAPAN Mail remain available but with some functional limitations.

See also

External links

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