Yahoo Presses Ahead With Panama Rollout in Emerging Markets

Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service Tue May 6, 11:00 PM ET

Yahoo plans to soon roll out its Panama search advertising platform in the few remaining markets in Asia and Latin America where it's not yet available, completing plans to make the platform available worldwide, a company executive said Tuesday.

"Within the next coming weeks we will have Panama, our search marketing platform, launched globally," said Prashant Mehta, vice president and head of Yahoo's Advertiser and Publisher Group for International Emerging Markets.

The Panama system was conceived as a way of better competing against search-advertising leader Google, but hasn't diminished its commanding lead. Expanding Panama internationally plays to the strengths of Yahoo, which has a stronger position than Google in many key Asian markets, such as Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.

Last month, Yahoo conducted a Yahoo.com. The test took place against the backdrop of Microsoft's aborted bid to acquire Yahoo, and fueled speculation that a wider advertising alliance between the two rivals could be in the works.

Yahoo has not disclosed the results of the test with Google, but the company appears pleased. "The results were as what we had anticipated," Mehta said, declining to elaborate further.