Yahoo Japan to offer downloadable songs

[imac_japan]

Yahoo japan will offer an itunes like store here in Japan later this year. This worries me because Yahoo's Broadband company or BB (as its called here) is one if not the biggest provider. Yahoo is very very popular here in Japan, more popular than google as a search engine.

An example is Auctions. In the rest of the world, Ebay is the king of Auctions but in japan, Yahoo crushed Ebay....because of two things....1) it was the first - Yahoo knew that Ebay was coming to japan so it qucikly built an online auction site and 2) it's free whereas Ebay charge's users..

My point is if Apple lets yahoo open a store first in Japan then Apple will have to try very hard to overtake Yahoo. Because Yahoo has brand power here bigger than Apple - Apple could lose its chance.

 

[moot]

I don't agree. i think that many would still be interested in an iTunes store, even if Yahoo beats them to.

Yahoo japan will offer an itunes like store here in Japan later this year. This worries me because Yahoo's Broadband company or BB (as its called here) is one if not the biggest provider. Yahoo is very very popular here in Japan, more popular than google as a search engine.

By the way, the Yahoo BB provider is not Yahoo as in the US company. A company called Softbank are the ones behind it and have some sort of license to use the Yahoo brand. (it used to be a joint venture in the past, I think)

An example is Auctions. In the rest of the world, Ebay is the king of Auctions but in japan, Yahoo crushed Ebay....because of two things....1) it was the first - Yahoo knew that Ebay was coming to japan so it qucikly built an online auction site and 2) it's free whereas Ebay charge's users..

I wish it were free but it's not. To have an account with Yahoo Japan Auction you need to pay a monthly fee of 294yen (about$2.70). Then to buy is free. But to list an item costs about 10yen (10 cents) and if you get a sale you must pay 3% of the selling price. As the only way to open an account is to provide some sort of bank details or credit card, there is no way around these fees.

I dont think Apple need to worry. When the time is right they will launch here and it will be a huge success!

 

[imac_japan]

I disagree...If you want to sell on Ebay then you have to pay a fee every time. Yahoo JP's fee is annual and yes..Yahoo BB is a joint venture BUT the point that i was making is that Yahoo is big in Japan and if they "do it first" then they'll have a big lead - The ipod is doing pretty well but in Japan Apple has to deal with services that include downloadable songs to your mobile phone and Japanese companies eg: Sony.....Remember that consumers here have a very strong bias towards Japanese companies when it comes to technology.

Take alook at the PS2 vs X-box......