Plans are in the works to reorganize Yahoo’s China portal. The company plans to shift towards being a business oriented search engine. Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba Group that oversees Yahoo’s China operations said the change would make Yahoo more competitive.
In an interview with the Associated Press Ma said,” If Yahoo is going to win, it has to do so in a new way. What’s the point of building another Sina.com?” Ma admitted that Yahoo China has been falling behind in the market.
Company research showed that Yahoo China attracted more business oriented users while rival Baidu had more students use their search engine. “We don’t need to compare ourselves with Baidu in market share,” Ma said.
Ma said Yahoo China will try to caputure high income users and entrepreneurs. He did not say when the changes will happen but it will involve key changes in technology and instuitional culture. “We don’t want those not interested in business or making money. They can go to Baidu,” he said. “Our main focus is the high-end.”
Both Yahoo and Google have been criticized by human rights groups for allowing the Chinese government to censor or block content. Ma said Yahoo China follows local law and does not believe the company has done anything wrong. “History will keep the record”,Ma said.
Internet searching is a booming industry in China. China has 123 million Internet users that are projected to conduct 816 million searches a day in 2007. Revenue from advertising on search sites is expected to reach $ 1 billion by 2010 according to investment bank Piper Jaffray.
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Mike is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.
