Yahoo! Japan announced on 27 July 2010 that it had “decided to change its search engine (the service for searching for information on the Internet) and ads platform (its search-triggered ads distribution system) to Google Inc”.
It also published the following diagram demonstrating what this means in practice:
The diagram makes clear what the words do not. The tie-up between Google and Yahoo! Japan will give Google a near-monopoly of both algorithmic search and of search advertising in Japan. All the red and blue boxes in the diagram will no longer be provided by Yahoo! Japan in competition to Google’s own offering, they will be provided by Google in a virtual absence of competition.
This seems remarkably similar to the Google/Yahoo! deal which provoked the opposition of the US Department of Justice in 2008. The terms seem similar, as do the combined market shares and the likely impact of the deal.
It is unclear at this stage what discussions have taken place with the Japanese antitrust authorities. Whatever the case, it is clearly important for advertisers and online publishers to make clear their views – and to do so rapidly.
David Wood
ICOMP Legal Counsel
