Alibaba.com Re-Launches Yahoo! China As Search Brand

Alibaba.com Corporation, China's largest e-commerce company, announced today the re-launch of Yahoo! China, with a new home page and business model focused on search.
As part of the re-launch, Yahoo! China's search brands, including Yisou.com, have been consolidated and rebranded as "Yahoo! Search".

"Yahoo! China's new direction can be summed up in one key word --'search'," said Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba.com, which in October acquired the China business of Yahoo! Inc. and became the exclusive licensee to the Yahoo! brand and search technology in China. "This is the first big step we are taking to reshape the Yahoo! brand in China since taking over its operations. We have successfully married Yahoo!'s world-class search technology with Alibaba.com's expertise in China, to build the best search engine for China's Internet users."

The New Yahoo! China
The re-launched site, at http://www.yahoo.com.cn/ , provides a simplifiedlook and feel with a home page focused on search.

Yahoo! China already enjoys a strong second place position in the China search market, on the heels of market leader Baidu by only 5% in terms ofmarket share. According to the latest available independent study from iResearch (Q1 2005), Yahoo! China's search properties had a combined marketshare of 32% as measured by search queries, placing Yahoo! China in the No. 2 position behind Baidu (37%) and well ahead of third-place Google (19%) in China. "Search is an integral part of e-commerce," said Ma. "We will soon belaunching an aggressive and innovative marketing campaign to promote Yahoo!China as China's leading search destination. Just as we've surpassed tough competitors to become the market leader in China's business-to-business and consumer e-commerce sectors, we expect Yahoo! China will take the lead in search."

SOURCE Alibaba.com (Press Release)