Yahoo, the US-based digital media company that has been grappling with fierce competition in the global Internet arena, has crossed the threshold into local territory with the launch of a South African portal.
Yahoo SA, which went live on Tuesday morning and is hosted at http://za.yahoo.com/, will see a multi-phased approach to the local digital media industry.
According to Apurimac, Yahoo's exclusive commercial partner for Africa, the local site will change over time in accordance with the behavioural patterns of its users.
The site features a mail service, as well as localised content, including breaking news, finance, sports and entertainment.
Commercial director of Apurimac James Edwards says that, for now, the international content will stay the same. “South Africans don't only read local content, so the site features a mix of both localised and international pieces.”
He says Yahoo has a following of 2.6 million users in the South African environment, “and growing”.
Market challenge
Founded over 15 years ago in the US, Yahoo has to contend with the likes of search giant Google, which was recently looking into the acquisition of Yahoo's core business. It also has competition from Microsoft's online platforms, including Windows Live Mail and Howzit MSN, which are well established and have the local market largely covered.
“SA is an emerging market and Yahoo deals extensively with Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It has a massive database for South African users.”
Apurimac says Yahoo reaches nearly two in every five South Africans online, and the total Internet population is growing at about 20% a year.
The company has a host of global content partnerships, now supplemented by local companies. Among Yahoo's global content providers are Reuters, AFP and the Associated Press.
What's new?
Yahoo's new homepage, which brings together South African and international content, “offers each user a personalised experience thanks to Yahoo's core engine, which delivers over 13 million different experiences every day and personalises 2.2 billion modules per day around the world”, it says.
Edwards says the core engine monitors behaviour on the site and will customise content for users based on this.
Yahoo Mail “connects 284 million people around the world to the people and messages that matter most”. Apurimac says the new mail system shows a 60% reduction in reports of spam and comes with a .co.za domain name.
Yahoo News covers daily news, sports, finance, entertainment, science and technology through global partnerships and South African publishers such as TEAMtalk Media, the Mail & Guardian Online and The Daily Maverick.
Yahoo's director of content partners and expansion markets Matt West says there is more to come. “This is a first step. We are enthusiastic about the future we see for everything that's digital in SA.”
Apurimac MD Will Green says South Africans have had a close relationship with the Yahoo brand, from the earliest times of the Internet, and Yahoo hopes the new homepage will further deepen this relationship.
January will see a “massive redirect” of URL whereby South African users of Yahoo.com will be redirected to Yahoo.co.za.
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