|
Sunnyvale, California-based Internet portal and search engine company Yahoo will partner with the second  most popular Israeli portal Walla Communications Limited to provide Yahoo's search technology and databases using the Walla Search name, under a strategic cooperation agreement signed Monday, according to a report from Israel's leading daily newspaper Haaretz. "The search and advertising in [the] search results sector is one of the fastest growing in the world, and also in Israel. The agreement with Yahoo! allows us to offer Walla's surfers an excellent search product [...] for the Israeli user," Walla chief executive Ilan Yeshua told Haaretz. "The agreement will help Walla increase its market share in the search-based advertising market. The existence of another strong player in the search and textual advertising sector will contribute to competitiveness, both in the search experience and in the range of possibilities available to advertisers," Yeshua said. Israel to See Yahoo Research Center The agreement, which also aims to provide an alternative to Google for Israeli targeted advertisers, is expected to see Yahoo open a research and development center in Haifa, Israel within several months, according to the Haaretz report. Both search leader Google and software giant Microsoft operate research and development centers in Israel, including Google's center in Haifa which it opened in July 2006, and one in Tel Aviv, along with Microsoft's in Herzliya and Tel Aviv, according to the report in Haaretz, which is an investor in Walla. In addition to Google's research centers, it operates a marketing center specializing in content partnerships with Israeli Web portals, and has offered its search engine in Hebrew for more than five years, the report said. Monday's agreement with Yahoo aims to push Walla towards becoming a significant search engine site in Israel. "We don’t expect to win half of the search market in Israel, but we expect to become a significant player in Israel, and we'll grab a substantial portion of the market," Yeshua said in a recent article in Globes Online. The Haaretz report notes that "the goal [of Monday's agreement] is to threaten Google's hegemony in the Israeli search market for the first time and the real challenge is to compete in search-based advertising." The agreement will see Walla Search continue to use and manage its own AdVantage online advertising program, a pay-per-click system launched in May 2007, instead of a Yahoo-operated program, which will allow Walla to keep a higher percentage of advertising revenue, according to Haaretz. The online advertising market in Israel has been estimated at $90 million in 2007, with between $40-$50 million going to Google, according to Haaretz. Yahoo Increases Search Presence in Israel with Walla Yahoo and Walla have reportedly held discussions in the past about potential partnership agreements, however until Monday nothing had materialized between the two firms. Some analysts believe that a change of management at Walla in 2006 may have helped the present agreement come to pass. The Walla Search service with Yahoo technology is expected to eventually provide results in Hebrew, English and other languages. Google Israel is the top Israeli portal, garnering a 73 percent weekly exposure rate in December 2007 according to a survey done by market research firm Teleseker Internet Monitor (TIM). Walla, which was founded in 1995 by Gadi Hadar and Erez Philosoph, went public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1998, and after merging with Israel On Line in 2001 became the most visited Web site in Israel until being overtaken by Google. Neither Yahoo nor Walla, which also offers Web-based email services, has made further details of the agreement available. Yeshua sees the partnership with Yahoo as a long-lasting one. "We signed a long-term agreement with Yahoo that enables us to use its innovative search technology. The agreement follows the launch of our search engine at the beginning of the year. The business has caught on, and succeeded, with a great many advertisers already signing up," said Yeshua. "We reached a deal that will last for years," he added. Related Links:
|
10:24 pm on Jan. 15, 2008 (utc 0)