Yahoo!’s Integrated Advertising Solution Make It a Must Buy for Marketers and Advertisers in Malaysia

Empowering local SMBs to embrace technology and expand regionally via the Internet
Ken Mandel, Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! Southeast Asia

Kuala Lumpur, April 16, 2008 – Yahoo! recently held the Yahoo! Advertising Summit in Singapore where the company unveiled its new advertising solutions, as well as a preview of its “starting point” and “must buy” strategies for the media, marketers and advertisers around the region that will differentiate Yahoo! as an online leader in the Southeast Asia marketplace.

With over 500 million users worldwide and over 53 million users in Southeast Asia, Yahoo! is the largest publisher on the Web with the biggest audience and the most engaged users, providing an effective platform for businesses to reach their consumers.

At the summit, Ken Mandel, Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! Southeast Asia, was on hand to speak about Yahoo!’s integrated advertising solution that offers advertisers and marketers simultaneous reach across Yahoo!’s unique marketplaces, communications, search and social media assets.

“We believe that there is too much friction in the marketplace for businesses to advertise and do business. Internet penetration is on the rise and more people are spending their time on the Internet today, yet online advertisement spending is still low. Yahoo! intends to make it easier with our unique approach to online advertising that offers search, display and mobile advertising all in one package,” said Mandel.

Driving forward Yahoo!’s online advertising strategy is the company’s search marketing solution that will be available soon in Southeast Asia – Sponsored Search. A pay-per-click advertising model that starts from as low as one cent, Sponsored Search allows small and large advertisers to tap into Yahoo!’s 53 million users in Southeast Asia.

“Sponsored Search allows business to reach consumers at the right cost to the right users at the right time. Even small and medium businesses can now jump on the digital bandwagon with our cost effective search marketing solution,” said Prashant Mehta, Vice President for Advertiser and Publisher Group for Emerging Markets with Yahoo!.

Yahoo!’s Sponsored Search is so simple to use and maintain that small and medium business (SMB) owners can manage their own accounts without the need for dedicated IT personnel. Users can set up their own account within minutes and immediately start advertising their services or products to millions of users across Yahoo!’s large audience in Southeast Asia.

Search marketing or advertising is a fast growing segment in the online advertising sector today. The paid Search Advertising market in Southeast Asia is expected to grow 56% from $16 million in 2007 to $25 million in 2008 (Source: ZenithOptiMedia Advertising Expenditure Jun 2007 and Yahoo!).

Search Advertising is also the perfect avenue for SMBs with limited advertising budgets to reach out a wider audience, especially the savvy Internet users. SMBs account for 99.2% of total business establishments in Malaysia, but the SMB sector contributes only 32% of the country’s GDP. Furthermore, only 30% of SMBs have embraced IT (Source: Malaysia Small and Medium Enterprise 2006 Annual Report).

Yahoo! believes having a principal position in both search and display advertising is crucial, as integrated solutions across a broad advertisement network provide advantages for advertising campaigns, making the company a must buy with marketers and advertisers.

Furthermore, Yahoo! is also addressing the opportunity for marketers and advertisers to tap into the rapidly growing and lucrative audience of mobile consumers. It is expected that by 2012, there will be an estimated 1.9 billion mobile phone users in Asia Pacific, with about half a billion of them accessing the Internet through their mobile phones (Source: Asia Pacific Quarterly Mobile Services Tracker March 2008)

Yahoo!'s Mobile Ad Services make it possible to reach target customers wherever they are, seamlessly following them from the PC to the mobile Internet. Marketers are now able to connect with over 600 million potential customers on mobile through innovative services (Yahoo! oneSearch, Yahoo! Go and mobile internet) and carrier partners.

“In Asia, mobile will be an important starting point for Yahoo! Mobile advertising is still in its infancy, but everyone is studying it very closely,” said Mandel.

Yahoo! in Malaysia is committed to understanding a marketer’s business needs and building a long-term relationship, providing integrated advertising solutions. As some businesses in Malaysia are already planning to double their online advertising spend, Yahoo! is prepared to exceed marketers’ expectations and become their partner of choice for online advertising.

“Yahoo! wants to connect publishers and consumers in the marketplace. By reducing the friction to make buying online and mobile advertising easier, and having the scale to be relevant to advertisers, we believe that we can be the must buy advertising network for marketers and advertisers,” said Mandel.