Yahoo China will be reformed to serve businesses

The Yahoo portal in China (Yahoo China for short) will be reorganized according to the trend of search engines serving primarily business circles.

That's the statement of the head of Yahoo China on Monday (8/1). This change is not for any other purpose than to help Yahoo cope with fierce competition challenges from its own rivals.

Jack Ma, chairman of the board of e-commerce companies Alibaba Group, the operating company of the Yahoo China website, said the search engine specialization this time will help his company eliminate pressure. competing from China's leading search engine Baidu and familiar web portals like Sina.com.

Mr. Ma also acknowledged Yahoo's regression and losses, but refused to give specific parameters. On the other hand, he said, his company's research found that people interested in Yahoo's search engines were mostly businesses, not most students, as in Baidu's service.

Ma said: ' If Yahoo wins, it will have to win in a new way' and confidently: 'We don't need to compare our market share to Baidu .'

According to Mr. Ma, Yahoo China will seek new ways, taking advantage of the attraction of the portal with high-income users and entrepreneurs. Mr. Ma did not give a detailed description, but it is clear that Yahoo China's changes will obviously be more important than displaying search results that are more about the website group that serves businesses and entrepreneurs.

Mr. Jack Ma, chairman of the board of e-commerce company Alibaba Group.Photo AP .

Although he did not say when Yahoo's change will be implemented, Ma said the changes would lead to significant changes in both the technology and corporate culture.

Mr. Ma affirmed: ' We do not want to target those who are not interested in trading and trading. Those people can look to Baidu. Our focus is on the upper class '.

This is the latest revision of Yahoo's operation in China, where the famous group has been working hard since the start of its business in 1999. After finding a reliable local partner, May October 2005, Yahoo decided to transfer its operations to Alibaba Group, which is leading the Chinese market with e-commerce sites linking foreign entrepreneurs with wholesalers. domestic. Alibaba also has a familiar online auction site Taobao.com and China's leading online payment service Alipay. As part of that transfer contract, Mountain View, California-based Yahoo company, has "shared" 40% of its capital with private corporation Alibaba.

Also this Monday (January 8), Mr. Ma deployed an online business software company called Alisoft with an initial plan to target 18 million customers of Alibaba.

Yahoo is one of many foreign network operators trying to find a way to penetrate the Chinese market.

Online search is a fast growing and strong business in China. The investigative research shows that Yahoo clearly lagged behind Baidu. According to development bank Piper Jaffray, it is expected that China's 123 million Internet users will make about 816 million searches a day in 2007, while by 2010, annual advertising revenue on pages Search will reach $ 1 billion.

Paul Waide, an analyst and content manager with Shanghai-based Pacific Epoch, a technology consulting firm, said that changing both Yahoo's orientation and Alisoft's establishment is clear. out are smart moves.

Mr. Waide said: ' Alibaba sales seem to be a great idea. So it is clear that Yahoo hardly wants to compete with Baidu or Google in search as well as with Sina.com in the field of news . ' According to him, the resounding accomplishments of Ma will surely strengthen Yahoo China's confidence.

Mr. Ma said, the new company Alisoft will aim to exploit the needs of small and medium enterprises, who are in need of upgrading activities which are still very faint, obscure. Such needs are becoming more and more pressing as the stable exchange rate between the yuan and the dollar makes Chinese exports more expensive, reducing net interest.

Along with that practice, according to Ma, the acquisition of software on the Internet will avoid the problems of piracy. Alibaba Group has its own brand, has a customer base, trade channels and payment methods, from those advantages, Mr. Ma said that he hopes Alisoft will bring in revenue right from the time of deployment. perform. He said: ' We see this will be a great business opportunity .'

Do Duong