Yahoo promises more local content, unveils search services for RP firms

[Jeff]

Yahoo has unveiled its sponsored search services in the Philippines as part of the company’s efforts to localize its content.


Jojo Añonuevo, general manager for Yahoo’s Philippines operations, said the Philippine rollout is part of the Internet search giant’s country per country implementation of its paid search services.

The company earlier announced the search services plan, but this is the first time that it will be rolling out on a per country basis, Añonuevo Añonuevo said Yahoo Philippines will be primarily targeting small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines, but will also be looking at providing the service for lrage enterprises.

"We are not limiting our targets, but we are initially looking at these SMBs," Añonuevo said, adding that most SMBs in the Philippines have yet to take full advantage of online advertising to expand their business beyond the Philippines.

The executive said the potential for SMBs is lucrative, and that with paid serarch services, local companies will have the chance to reach some 53 million new customers all throughout Southeast Asia and 500 milion users worldwide.

Yahoo’s sponsored search marketing initiative, also known as "Panama," is similar to its rival Google’s search service.

The service essentially allows a company to pay a certain amoutn to Yahoo so that its internet users can "see" the company’s advertisements whenever a user uses Yahoo’s search engine.

The system was designed to deliver highlytargetted customers leads to Yahoo advertisers which are wiling to pay for paid search results from Yahoo, Añonuevo also said.

Añonuevo said the worldwide travel and tourism industry has been taking advantage of these business model, and that Yahoo "aims to allow more Philippine companies to do the same."

However, the executive acknowledged that a bulk of Philippine SMBs need to change their strategies to be able to take advantage of internet marketing.

The executive said Yahoo is looking at some 781,000 Philippine SMBs for the search service, although the executive declined to give target figure in terms of revenues for the service.

The executive meanwhile declined to comment on questions on Yahoo’s plans to set up a full-blown country office.

The firm has a temporary office but its marketing and technical support services department are still based inits regional office in Singapore.

[Wowie]

This move of yahoo clearly shows that it want to compete with googles' localized search, but with the extra charges.