Google's Prime Position On Japan's Mobile Web

Google (NSDQ: GOOG) may have lost its contract to be T-Mobile's search partner in Europe last week, but apparently, it has won Japan's mobile web battle, according to a Businessweek article looking at the search giant's progress in the country. Google has managed to tie up deals with Japan's two largest operators—NTT DoCoMo (NYSE: DCM) and KDDI—which means some 82 million mobile subscribers see it as their default search engine. In comparison, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Japan, owned by Softbank, Japan's smallest operator, is the defacto engine to fewer than 18 million users.

What's especially revealing about the DoCoMo/Google partnership, according to the article, is how carefully the two—operator and search engine—have gone out of their way to cooperate with one another, which means the "bloodbath" that was supposed to come out of the "battle for control" of the mobile web might not happen.  The two companies have apparently agreed to:

— share search data and split ad revenues


— Google gets its hands on massive amounts of behavioural data on Japanese mobile users, which it needs to improve its search capability.


— Google gets access to the operators' content sites to display mobile ads, and to make their search results more accurate.


— Carriers get Google's help on search and can use its transcoder to convert wired web sites into mobile ones.

Still, it seems that this partnership is only a "marriage of convenience," and according to analysts cited in the story, one of the parties is going to eventually realize they've learned enough from the other, and end the relationship—especially as the payout for controlling mobile advertising gets higher, estimated to hit $3.8 billion by 2012.

Businessweek also has an interesting sidebar on how Google is using Japan as its biggest test lab for the mobile web. "Our fundamental strategy is to take ideas from Japan and apply them to other markets," says Emmanuel Sauquet, head of the search giant's relations Asian mobile carriers. More here.

Related

• Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son Warns Operators Not To Become "Dumb Pipes"


• @ MWC: T-Mobile Picks Yahoo Over Google Around Europe


• NTT DoCoMo Profits Climb 38.4 Percent In Third Quarter


• DoCoMo Signs Google Search Deal; Seeks $94 Million Ad Revenues