History and Industry Affiliations
– Yahoo! Japan was founded in 1996 as a joint venture between SoftBank and Yahoo! Inc.
– It went live on April 1, 1996.
– Yahoo! Japan was listed on JASDAQ in November 1997.
– In January 2000, it became the first stock in Japanese history to trade for more than ¥100 million per share.
– The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in October 2003 and became part of the Nikkei 225 stock market index in 2005.
– Yahoo! Japan was a founding member of the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) in February 2010.
– It later joined Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) in July 2012.
– Yahoo! Japan withdrew from JANE in March 2012.
– Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani led JANE.
– Yahoo! Japan’s partnership with Google on search engine technology is set to expire in 2025.
Design
– Yahoo! Japan continues to use a site design similar to the one used prior to 2007 internationally.
– The international Yahoo logo used before 2013, colored red, is also used.
– The design has remained consistent over the years.
– It maintains a recognizable and familiar look.
– The design is distinct from the design used by Yahoo! internationally.
Services
– Yahoo! Japan offers various web-based services and apps.
– Ymobile, a subsidiary of SoftBank, provides mobile telecommunications and ADSL services.
– Yahoo! Japan Mail is a separate service operated in Japan.
– Yahoo! Japan Auctions is Japan’s largest Internet auction service.
– Yahoo! Japan T-Point is a rewards program for earning and redeeming points.
Recent Developments and Acquisition/Partnerships
– In 2019, Yahoo! Japan changed to a holding company structure and came under Z Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group.
– In 2021, Line Corporation also became part of ZHD.
– In 2023, Yahoo Japan merged with ZHD and its five subsidiaries to form LY Corporation.
– Yahoo! Japan is aiming to compete with U.S. tech giants Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple, as well as Chinese tech giants Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent.
– The merger with Line gives Z Holdings access to additional Asian markets: Taiwan, Thailand, and Indonesia.
– Verizon bought Yahoo’s core business for $4.8 billion in a digital ad push.
– SoftBank tightened its grip on Yahoo Japan through a $2 billion deal with Altaba.
– Yahoo Japan operator, Line, merged to take on foreign tech giants.
– Yahoo Japan obtained trademark rights for the Yahoo brand for 178 billion yen.
– Yahoo Japan weighed ending its search engine deal with Google.
Other Facts and Statistics
– Yahoo Japan’s future looks bright unlike its U.S. counterpart.
– Yahoo Japan decided to keep its name and services despite the U.S. sale.
– GeoCities, a part of internet history, died in March 2019.
– Yahoo Japan’s website became unavailable to most of Europe.
– T-Mobile US holds a 4.5% stake in Yahoo! Japan, and GungHo Online Entertainment holds 3.80%.
It has been suggested that this article should be split into articles titled Yahoo! Japan Corporation and Yahoo! Japan. (discuss) (December 2023) |
Yahoo! Japan Corporation (ヤフー株式会社, Yafū Kabushiki-gaisha) was a Japanese web services provider. It was founded in 1996 as a joint venture between SoftBank (current SoftBank Group) and American Yahoo! Inc. Its search engine was the most-visited website in Japan, nearing monopolistic status. In 2019, it changed to a holding company structure and came under Z Holdings, a subsidiary of SoftBank Group. In 2021, Line Corporation also became part of ZHD, and in 2023, Yahoo Japan merged with ZHD and its five subsidiaries, including Line Corp, to form LY Corporation.
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Native name | ヤフー株式会社 |
|---|---|
Romanized name | Yafū! kabushiki gaisha |
| Type | Public KK |
| Founded | January 11, 1996 |
| Founder |
|
| Defunct | October 1, 2023 |
| Fate | Merged with Z Holdings and Line Corporation |
| Successor | LY Corporation |
| Headquarters | 1–3, Kioi-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
Number of locations | 2 (Nagoya and Osaka) |
Key people | Masayoshi Son (Chairman) Manabu Miyasaka (President and CEO) |
| Revenue |  ¥292,423 million (FY 2010) |
| ¥159,604 million (FY 2010) | |
| ¥92,174 million (FY 2010) | |
| Total assets | ¥471,745 million (FY 2010) |
| Total equity | ¥385,105 million (FY 2010) |
Number of employees | 5,518 (As of September 30, 2015) |
| Parent |
|
| Subsidiaries | Netrust, Ltd. ASKUL Corporation |
| Website | www |
According to The Japan Times, as of 2012, Yahoo Japan had a footprint on the internet market in Japan. In terms of use as a search engine, however, it has never surpassed Google. The company is the second largest search engine used in Japan as of July 2021, with a market share of 19% behind Google's 77%.
Yahoo! Japan search engine was a directory–type search engine, similar to Yahoo! in the United States. A crawler–type search engine was used as well, and as the popularity of the crawler–type search engine gradually increased, after October 3, 2005, Yahoo! Japan began utilizing only the crawler–type engine. On June 29, 2017, Yahoo! Japan announced that the directory-based search engine "Yahoo! Category", which had been in operation since its establishment, would be abolished on March 29, 2018.
As a crawler–type search engine, Yahoo! Japan initially used technology from the Japanese company Goo, which used Google's technology. The company later switched to using Yahoo Search Technology (YST), developed by Yahoo! in the US. In addition to serving as a standard search engine, Yahoo! Japan partnered with Twitter to provide real-time search for tweets. It also receives data feeds from partner companies; Cookpad and Naver information is displayed in search results. Yahoo! Search Custom Search was discontinued on March 31, 2019.
